You've just hit a real actual problem in the code. Factoring that out isn't premature, it's responding to reality.

I was reacting to the idea that instead of fixing the immediate bug you just found you're going to redesign the whole thing to prevent that type of bug from occurring ever again in the future.

And simonh was pointing out that it's not really premature if it's already occurred :)

Don't get me wrong, you have a point - there is certainly a balance to be struck.