John Hawkinson <jhawk@mit.edu> typed:
:	"tput init" fails to reset SGR characteristics (e.g. blink)
:Is it an xterm bug?

No.  Definitely not.  In VT100s, DECSC causes the
"cursor position, graphic rendition, and character set to be saved"
and similarly restored via DECRC

:or a termcap lib bug?

No.

:Or a termcap entry bug?

Sort of.  None of the similar entries: vt10?/xterm/etc. do that
which means either all similar term entries need to be changed (and
fed back to the maintainer), or none and live with it.  Also, this
affects any alternative capability systems (e.g. terminfo) which normally
are generated from the same database as the termcap entries so
things like pkgsrc/devel/ncurses would need similar patches.
Note: reset of SGR is ``\E[m'' (default parameter of the SGR CSI is 0)
under ISO/IEC 6429:1992(E).