Idk to me it screams "solve this puzzle and win a free wrench" /s
I like the creativity of it, and it does solve the problem in a way that's user-safe. I thought of removing the knob because that's what I do with my barbecue as I store items on the grill when not in use. Remove knobs, put on grill, close barbecue, cover.
A lot of people won't touch electrical, and the problem with modifying the wiring is you need to be able to clearly document or show what was changed in case it needs to be reversed later.
This is ugly, but it's immediately obvious how to reverse it to anyone who looks at it. And that pipe wrench probably wasn't being used anymore anyways. I doubt they tapped the holes, those are probably just self-tap screws that both drilled the hole and cut the thread as they screwed in. No one will call this an elegant solution, but if it works it works.
If you've ever worked in maintenance, active production, etc, you'll be lucky to even have schematics. And trust me, there are a lot of hacks of people fucking with controls for 30+ years straight that soooo much of it is full of "fixes" like this, whether it's something pushing a button in, or pieces of metal instead of fuses, or wires jumping over what's "in the way" like whole safety systems and e-stops, contactors forced to run, etc etc etc.