Example on how the Gutenberg the_content filter for wpautop could've prevented breaking plugins that removed wpautop.

example.php

<?php

// How it is :

function gutenberg_wpautop( $content ) {
	if ( gutenberg_content_has_blocks( $content ) ) {
		return $content;
	}

	return wpautop( $content );
}
remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
add_filter( 'the_content', 'gutenberg_wpautop', 8 );

// How I would've done it : 

class GTCreativeExampleWPAutop {

  public $removed_filter = false;

  public function __construct() {
    add_filter( 'the_content', [ $this, '_early_the_content' ], 8 );
    add_filter( 'the_content', [ $this, '_late_the_content' ], 10000 );
  }

  public function _early_the_content( $content ) {
    if( has_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' ) ) {
      $this->removed_filter = true;
      remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
    } else {
      $this->removed_filter = false;
    }

    if ( gutenberg_content_has_blocks( $content ) ) {
      return $content;
    }

    if( $this->removed_filter )
      return wpautop( $content );
    else
      return $content;
  }

  public function _late_the_content( $content ) {
    if( $this->removed_filter )
      add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );

    return $content;
  }

}

$go = new GTCreativeExampleWPAutop();