Unwritable server.properties makes server loop instead of throwing an error

If server.properties is unwritable, the server goes into a loop printing this:

at le.b(SourceFile:54) [minecraft_server.1.11.2.jar:?]
at le.a(SourceFile:44) [minecraft_server.1.11.2.jar:?]

then it has to be killed.

I ran into this because I own the server.properties file but run minecraft_server as another user. I understand that the file must be writable for the server to operate correctly, but if the file isn't writable, the server should give an error and exit rather than going into this loop.