When creating an Element with a ref from inside of a constructor an error is thrown in production mode, but not in dev mode.

Here is a minimal sample:
https://jsfiddle.net/84v837e9/35/

An error, "Only a ReactOwner can have refs", should happen in dev and production modes.

This is happening in React 15.4
inst.props = nextProps;
      inst.state = nextState;
      inst.context = nextContext;
    }
    if (callbacks) {
      for (var j = 0; j < callbacks.length; j++) {
        transaction
          .getReactMountReady()
          .enqueue(callbacks[j], this.getPublicInstance());
      }
    }
  },
  _processPendingState: function(props, context) {
    var inst = this._instance;
    var queue = this._pendingStateQueue;
    var replace = this._pendingReplaceState;
    this._pendingReplaceState = false;
    this._pendingStateQueue = null;
    if (!queue) {
      return inst.state;
    }
    if (replace && queue.length === 1) {
      return queue[0];
    }
    var nextState = replace ? queue[0] : inst.state;
    var dontMutate = true;
    for (var i = replace ? 1 : 0; i < queue.length; i++) {
      var partial = queue[i];
      let partialState = typeof partial === 'function'
        ? partial.call(inst, nextState, props, context)