should configure fail if --cache-file=FILE cannot be created or written?

[Jim Meyering]

I just noticed that

  $ ./configure --cache-file=/no-such-dir/file
  configure: creating cache /no-such-dir/file
  ./configure: line 1211: /no-such-dir/file: No such file or directory

does give a diagnostic, but happily continues along
and even exits successfully.

I expected it to stop right away and fail.

Is this deliberate?