I was reviewing the Feb release notes under the early access which pointed me to this thread. I definitely feel it's on the right path. I just wanted to provide some of the next steps to truly unlock the infinite usage fingers that sprout from a field after it is first created.
Don't get me wrong, the flexibility of Quick Base is phenomenal... but as you've pointed out... with that ability, comes great power to cause unexpected harm to end users. From where I sit... the unexpected can be controlled by providing additional tools to visualize your field/relationship/formula impacts to the application before fully implementing them.