It's funny trivia, but I think you would still have to be a tool to get that to happen, aside from the scenario of playing it at a retail store or restaurant when available. If the N64 had no means to save your progress, it would be another story.
I think back in the day, gamers would leave consoles on and turn tvs off and come back to it later. But wouldn't dare these days with how PC like they are.
Gotta love how people find these things out. Reminds me of the looping glitch in Sonic 3's save select music. If you stay too long on the screen, one of the instruments gets louder after 43 minutes. No one would ever see these glitches during testing because they wouldn't just stay in one screen for that long lol.