Is this a bug? melos publish fails on package validation "hint", but pub CLI doesn't

[chedwin41]

Context

I'm using melos publish to publish my Dart packages to a private registry. When the package version I'm trying to publish is earlier than a prerelease or dev version already published (example: 9.0.0-dev.1 is published, I try to publish 8.5.0-rc.3), I get the following message:

ERROR: Package validation found the following hint:
* The latest published version is 9.0.0-dev.1.
  Your version 8.5.0-rc.3 is earlier than that.
Uploading...
Message from server: Successfully uploaded package.

But then the melos publish command exits with code 1 and marks the job as failed, even though the package is actually published just fine (confirmed on the registry).

What’s weird

• If I use the pub publish command directly, I get the same warning/hint, but it doesn't make the command fail (exit code stays 0).
• Only melos publish treats this "hint" as an error and fails the CI job.

My question

Is this intended behavior, or is it a bug in Melos?
Should melos publish really fail just because of a versioning hint, even when the actual publish is successful?
If it’s intended, what’s the rationale?

Thanks for clarifying!

[chedwin41]

The error came from another package that couldn't be published due to some breaking error. I missunderstood the source of the error.