Wow. That's...extraordinary stupid.
The worst tank I've had personal experience with was a half circle betta tank that screwed to the wall. My former boss bought it for his office. It probably held about a 1/2 gallon of water and of course he couldn't be bothered to clean it. I had to unscrew it from the wall to do anything with it, then of course I couldn't rest it properly anywhere because of the shape. So I'm holding it up with one hand and trying to clean it with the other...it was just ridiculous and of course a complete fishy torture chamber. And of course the fish lived (because I was constantly doing water changes), which to him was proof that everything was just fine.