I agree, I always use at least one if not two backups.
That said, Apple did not release a press release on the alarm failure, when contacted by MacWorld they confirmed that there was a bug, that you could use a recurring alarm as a workaround, and that the problem would be gone on January 3rd. They did not mention that you needed to delete the alarm and enter a new one for it to be gone on the 3rd.
I am curious, at least in the US, why they did not do a text message. Probably would have worked in other countries too. And a press release would have been in order.
