you spotted a bug fixed in my patch 7 of 12 a month ago :) http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/debian-init-diversity/2020-July/003306.html
may be someone will apply them, but who knows? ciao!
- Bug#968038: sysvinit-utils: do_restart fails when not ran ... Stephane Lapie
- Bug#968038: sysvinit-utils: do_restart fails when not... Thorsten Glaser
- Bug#968038: sysvinit-utils: do_restart fails when... Stephane Lapie
- Bug#968038: sysvinit-utils: do_restart fails when not... Trek
