Some examples:
struct A { char c; /* char padding : 8; */ short s; };
struct B { char x[4]; };
B one() {
A a = {1, 2};
return std::bit_cast<B>(a);
}
In one(), the second byte of the object representation of a is bad. That means that the second byte of the produced B object is bad, so x[1] in the produced B object is an indeterminate value. The above function, if declared constexpr, would be usable in constant expressions so long as you don't look at one().x[1].
A two() {
B b;
b.x[0] = 'a';
b.x[2] = 1;
b.x[3] = 2;
return std::bit_cast<A>(b);
}
In two(), the second byte of the object representation of b is bad. But a bit_cast to A doesn't care because it never looks at that byte. The above function returns an A with a fully-defined value. If declared constexpr, it would produce a normal, fully-initialized value.
int three() {
int n;
return std::bit_cast<int>(n);
}
In three(), the entirety of n is bad. A bit_cast from it produces an int whose value is indeterminate. And because we have an expression of non-byte-like type that produced an indeterminate value, the behavior is undefined.
B four() {
int n;
return std::bit_cast<B>(n);
}
In four(), just like three(), the entirety of n is bad, so the scalar subobjects of B are bad too. But because they're of byte-like type, that's OK: we can copy them about and produce them from prvalue expressions.
I think the above is captured by the following wording change:
Change in [bit.cast]p1:
"""
Returns: An object of type To. Each bit of the value representation of the result is equal to the
corresponding bit in the object representation of from. Padding bits of the To object are unspecified.
If there is no value of type To corresponding to the value representation produced, the behavior is
undefined. If there are multiple such values, which value is produced is unspecified.
<ins>A bit in the value representation of the result is indeterminate if does not correspond to a bit in the value
representation of from or corresponds to a bit of an object that is not within its lifetime or has an indeterminate value ([basic.indet]).
For each bit in the value representation of the result that is indeterminate,
the smallest object containing that bit has an indeterminate value;