LUA_INIT is Lua code meant to run before other Lua code. If you wanted, you could probably nuke the entire standard library. I don't see why just because it can be "broken" it might be a misfeature.
[soniex2@soniex-pc lua]$ cat init.lua
local _require = require
require = function(...)
print(...)
return _require(...)
end
[soniex2@soniex-pc lua]$ LUA_INIT='@init.lua' lua -l init
init
Lua 5.3.4 Copyright (C) 1994-2017 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> ^C
[soniex2@soniex-pc lua]$
Is this intended?
--
Disclaimer: these emails may be made public at any given time, with or without reason. If you don't agree with this, DO NOT REPLY.