I've not done any programming for over 15 years now. But I suspect this issue will never be "fixed" because of limits that may be imposed by the programming language itself. In other words, fixing this particular problem may create 3 more, and fixing those may just create more, and so forth.
Generally, when you have a high cost basis and you add to it a comparatively low cost property improvement, the difference it makes may not be all that much. But if you have a $50K property improvement and basically "lose out" on $15-20K of depreciation, that can be a double edged sword when you sell the property later, and have to deal with the depreciation recapture.
