How is this the only way? What about software running on the owner's server? Also if we accept that Free Software is the answer to piracy what do we do about people who take the free software modify it and then violate the agreement by not making the changes available to others. Isn't this the piracy of free software?

Did you notice how all items on your list were about something missing rather than something done wrong. In my view you failed the interview question. Everyone can list features missing from the language and declare it a reason to hate but the most hated language will be the one that has all the features.

I came here to say that I sympathize with you as I am in similar situation :(

There is a problem. The end users may no notice that the system does not work correctly for a long time if there are null checks that simply hide the error and write it to the logs.

Of course there is general error handler up the chain. The problem with logs is that there may be no one to check them for very long time.

How do we know that the data makes sense and the system is in a consistent state. After all the error was unexpected so we don't know what the impact was.

The whole point of a "transaction" is that it can't be half completed :) If there is an error then it is rolled back.

The question is what happens to the page?

Sure but the end result would still be that the application (or the specific page) will not work at all.