regarding fix on "git clone $there $here"

Dear git experts,

Recently we try to upgrade ubuntu from 17.10 to 18.04, then we found one inconsistent behavior on git clone.

At 2.14.1 or 2.15.1, if I run command like 
 - mkdir /tmp/111
 - git clone git@github.com:111/111 /tmp/111

because it will failure, then /tmp/111 will be removed automatically.

However, at latest 2.17.0 which is part of ubuntu 18.04, seems like git clone failure will not auto remove this folder. I notice 2.16.2 and 2.17.0 release note includes this fix. So just wonder to know if prior behavior was think of bug, and this fix has change the behavior. 

 * "git clone $there $here" is allowed even when here directory exists
   as long as it is an empty directory, but the command incorrectly
   removed it upon a failure of the operation.

Thanks & Regards Leslie Wang