See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Jonesey95/sandbox&oldid=1005931797
What happens: Linter does not find any errors.
Expected Results: Linter should find a stripped cite tag.
Compare to this version: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Jonesey95/sandbox&oldid=1005932114
In the second version, ref tags have been removed, and Linter properly finds a stripped cite tag.
I haven't tried all possible permutations of this problem, so I don't know that this bug report title is 100% accurate, but it fits the A/B test that I performed.