My guess:

• It was the WINNER of the video contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5_Un0sYUw
• Also with no refence to video or article on OEX  https://openexchange.intersystems.com/package/DNA-sequence-Gene-finder  

#2)
Every LOCK persists until the process is ended or the LOCK is removed explicitely (LOCK -....)
it is not related to any error handling.

#1)
depends on your design.
If there is no conflict of subscripts between ADD and REMOVE possible there is no need of a Lock 

no need for this COPY
if your docker-compose.yml contains

    volumes:
      - ./:/home/irisowner/dev