Almost bricking sounds a bit like almost pregnant...
Bricking is when the device simply doesn't function anymore and can serve no other purpose as a brick could, basically. If you can still restart it manually (even if it requires something exotic like restarting in safe mode), it's not bricking, not even "almost". Unless you say that only a Sony certified technician could do it, because it involves special devices or something like that.
I could see using the term "almost bricking" if it involved causing a physical defect that could potentially brick it - like physically damaging the hard drive or memory, but it happens that the OS can work around the defect this time.