It doesn't reset dev, it just halves base production for the year
I used the word "reset" because I couldn't remember the actual results and couldn't think of a better word.
It is very unlikely to happen given the small percent chance but when playing in the RotW every little bit helps to keep up with the Europeans.
It may be more min/max-y than exploit-y but I feel like the spirit of the mechanic is that as a province develops so too do new ideas (institutions). But say you lose some of that development; whether you're taxing people into an oblivion/recruiting them into your army/navy (the effects of exploiting development) OR you run out of gold in a mine (gold depletion) you lose massive amounts of people. And while there is no population mechanic eventually if you lose enough people those grand ideas don't matter so much anymore.
Consider the ghost towns that sprung up in California and Alaska after the gold rush. Veins depleted, gold dried up and everyone left town. Translate that into eu4: if a gold mine depletes and you lose development, then why should institution progress not decrease with the resulting loss of people? The same logic holds true for exploiting development.
Obviously some of the mechanics like population aren't a part of EU4 but they are represented in other mechanics (colonization, base manpower and events). And currently the way the system works benefits the players. But just from a historical and logical view It shouldn't work the way it does IMO. That's why I considered it more of an exploit than min-max-ing.
