[Seaplaner]

...traced back to a manufacturing issue. Airbus has confirmed that it has no effect on flight safety.

I would love to believe this.

I'm not so sure, however. (Caution, I am NOT an engineer, so my opinion is merely intuitive reasoning.)

So, aero engineers, please help me out here.

Wing rib feet help translate the stresses from the skin (via the feet) through the ribs to the stringers and then concentrates on the spars and then the carry-through. Is this close?

If the feet are cracking, does this not mean that the stresses are exceeding the calculated loads (including safety margins); and that there might (might) be stresses that were not accounted for in design?

Again, I don't know, I'm just asking.

.

[bossmechanic]

Ya don’t have to be an engineer to know that the plane wasn’t designed to crack - anywhere - at any time.
Forces are showing up of some magnitude and/or direction not anticipated. This would be understandable if the planes had undergone some unique maneuver or impacted some unusual object. But to crack under normal operations?...
Not cool.