Yes, smart. In this particular instance, Michael (from LostCircuits) purposely plugged his HS fan to the power header, instead of the CPU fan header. The power line will cut the power to the fan if the system goes to sleep mode. This was done at users request, and seemed very reasonable, because if the system is in sleep mode, then the fan can be shut off.
The problem may have come from not unlocking the TB succesfully, which crashed the mobo and somehow disabled the COP.
If Michael had plugged his fan to the CPU fan header, and if he had succesfully unlocked his Thoroughbred, he wouldn't have lost his CPU.
Ed (from OC) is right about one thing: there is very little info from Asus. I've always found that the mobo manuals are sometimes cryptic, and the BIOS has too many odd features, most of which are poorly documented, if at all. Asus might turn into ATI if they don't get it together, but they seem to be able to get away with making a minimum effort to stay in the game.
All in all, it's a good warning for anyone, using any mobo: make sure you keep an eye on it when you're putting it together. Don't assume that all the features are functional until you've seen them in action, or at least until the OS is installed, tweaked and running. Anyone with experience will tell you the same thing.