As noted in my other post on the subject, this is is actually documented in the ref text macro reference entry.

However, I don't think it was intended that multiple objects could share the same tag (the tag variable was kind of a shortcut identifier initially but usage expanded as the language evolved).

I think Lummox can probably mark all of these reports as non-bugs, but I'd recommend a feature request for some other means of grabbing the reference number without pulling the tag, as this is intended and documented behavior (the reason is also valid). Plus a feature request on a better means of identifying instances within the map editor without having to alter their tag, as this is the only reason the 'generate from...' options alter tag at all.

The funny little things that started off as incredibly helpful shortcuts in the object tree that ended up biting larger projects right in the butt.

I'm sure you can see why things were done that way when they were done though, it made a lot of sense before usage of the tag variable expanded so much, at first it was mostly to quickly identify unique objects, then the instance editor got updated to show the tag so that you could setup unique identifiers for each instance, then we got the ability to generate instances from states and directions but we lacked a way to sort them out, so it was like 'well, the tag is already visible there' moment.

I believe there's stuff that relies on the behavior of \ref, but the rest of the stuffs seems like it could definitely be modified at this point without hurting anything. (Trust me, I've been trying to finagle some of these changes for over a decade but they kept falling into cracks and endless discussion)