Even if it's a bug it's not an obvious one like say the bugs that let you dice or raze in war(back when raze was removed entirely from war). It isn't obvious that it isn't working as intended although most would probably suspect it.
But yes, unless it isn't being actioned or fixed retroactively from day 1 then it shouldn't be changed/actioned until the age is over because that honor "fix" was bloody horrible and ruined or significantly impacted the age of a lot of people. Never ever change something that affects the game in a significant way in the middle of an age, unless you can do it retroactively(which is impossible since there is no way to tell how somebody having more acres than they should have impacted the outcome of a war etc.
For it to be abuse it has to be obvious that it's a bug and that somebody is exploiting it intentionally. And it's not obvious that it's not working as intended, sure it's pretty apparent that it's not working as it ought to be, but it could be that it's working as the devs intended to just that they didn't foresee the implications and consequences that it would bring.