True totally safe on a clone of production. Agreed.
OP has used the term 'production' which suggest there is a test site that is a clone of production. Been my experience, however, that the test site, after a period of time, isn't the same as production any more - moodle version slightly behind, courses also, etc. It more than likely doesn't have the DB/course issue. And might have to undergo the same tweaks as performed on production to get to certain points.
So to make sure the test site is in the same condition as production, OP will need to clone it again ... everything ... including moodledata.
Working with a database that is a clone of the DB that has issues on production server is in the same environment, under the same FQDN, etc., etc. It the edits to the test DB fail for some reason ... it's just the DB itself. Code hasn't changed, apache service hasn't changed, etc., etc.
Therefore, me thinks, shorter time to resolution of the problem is clone the DB on production and work with that DB clone.
OP has options. ;)
'spirit of sharing', Ken