Signup limit set to 0 on submit

Would someone please explain me why is signup limit set to 0 on node submission? and what does this code is expected to achieve?

    // submit
    if ($op == 'submit') {
      global $form_values;
      // Programmatically set (override) the overall signup limit.
      // We do this here to be sure it happens before the insert / update hooks are called.
      $node->signup_close_signup_limit = 0;
      $codes = signup_status_codes();
      foreach ($codes as $cid => $code) {
        $limit = $node->signup_status_close_cid_limits[$cid];
        $node->signup_close_signup_limit += ($limit == -1 ? 0 : $limit);
      }
      $form_values['signup_close_signup_limit'] = $node->signup_close_signup_limit;
    }

this is causing that whenever I edit a node, the singup limit is set to 0... the new $limit value doesn´t makes sense here since there´s no $node->signup_status_close_cid_limits member in $node ¿?

I´m using signup 5.x-2.7 and signup_status 5.x-1.1.

Most probably related to issue #242061: Signups not getting closed automatically which seems to have been reopened a while ago... any clue?