Right. I get that part. It is only initialized when it signing a specific word that shares the same sign with another word. Unnecessary initializing is something people do to poke fun at SEE.
But I thought that in SEE HAS is HAVE signed with S-Hands, HAD signed with D-Hands, and HAVE signed with V-Hands. That is what I learned in our brief SEE class and I believe that's what it has in the Yellow Book.
As for DIET, I always saw it and signed it by fingerspelling. I don't know if that sign was a joke that made itself into a sign, or vice-versa.