Well, yes, I was one of the people who experienced this problem:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-does-the-reader-read-guideline-badges-work/26264/9
Yes, that thread also indicates that it was fixed:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-does-the-reader-read-guideline-badges-work/26264/13
However if someone read short guidelines while the bug was in effect, they would not have the badge even though they read the guidelines.