hard limit on number of options for price field; no warning/error

When creating a simple membership contribution page, you cannot check more than 11 options and have the form save; however, there is no error message saying that you've hit the limit.

The limit is defined in CRM/Custom/Form/Field.php: CONST NUM_OPTION = 11;

This is iterated in a number of for loops. If I check off more than the max options, it doesn't save (the form returns with the checkbox simply not checked, but there is no error message indicating that I've hit a limit).

The data saves in a few locations, but not in others... for example it doesn't save in civicrm_price_field but it does save to the serialized "membership_types" field related to the contribution page (I can't recall the table specifically, sorry!)

Why is this limit there, and why is it set to 11 specifically? Is the alternative to use a membership price set?