No, this is not a bug.  specification->package always returns the latest version of a package and has no way of knowing what variable(s) that package object is bound to.

On April 21, 2024 8:02:50 AM PDT, Felix Lechner <felix.lechner@lease-up.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>On Sat, Apr 20 2024, Ian Eure wrote:
>
>> If an operating-system’s packages includes `(specification->package
>> "nss-certs")', this causes breakage, because that form selects version
>> 3.98, but %base-packages includes 3.88.1, which causes an error on the
>> next `guix system reconfigure' due to conflicting package versions in
>> the profile.
>
>Why does the unversioned stringy selector (specification->package
>"nss-certs") resolve to a version different from the unversioned
>variable nss-certs?  Is that a bug?
>
>Kind regards
>Felix
>
>P.S. I hoped to use the word "reified" but did not know how it fit in.

Thanks,

  — Ian