Thanks for pointing that out, Cryhavok101. I'd either forgotten it or never knew it.
I don't know if I'd call exploding dice too narrow in an RPG environment. In its simplest form ("see maximum roll, add bonus dice") it isn't much overhead; and if low and middle Target Numbers can benefit from increased margins of success, or if PCs can attempt difficult tasks (e.g., trying to forge the finest sword in the realm, or trying to suss out an NPC's background and allegiances based on their dialect and diction) without failure being too costly, then I think they have broad enough use.
On the other hand, if the characters regularly get attacked by units too fast, stealthy or distant to defeat (or escape) and the only way to be competitive is to roll explodingly high, then that's when I'd say they're too narrow.
I'm dead set against a 1-in-36 chance of automatic failure. That's a universe that doesn't work on a very fundamental level.
I've said something very similar in the past. Really though, it depends on what factors are being abstracted into the roll, and how exactly "failure" is being implemented.
And I'd say the reverse is also true. A universe in which you can stack bonuses in such a way that it's
impossible to fail certain rolls (such as my mid-level Pathfinder game, where characters are routinely +20 ahead of the rest of the party within their chosen specialties) doesn't work on a fundamental level either.