What protects against ability drain?

[Someone]

Intuitively wrong, yes. But logically wrong? Logic can leave you with absurdly counterintuitive conclusions - isn't that what led physicists to quantum mechanics?

well, the local rules crunchers discovered short ago how using the withdraw action you can create 5ftx5ft holes in space where you´re immune to all melee attacks, using the same logic used here. I bet no one will be using that interpretation either.

 

[Infiniti2000]

You have 5 Str damage and 4 Str drain, which fail to drop your Str below 1 while the spell is in effect; your Str score is 1.

The spell is not increasing your Strength; it's preventing it from being lowered.

By definition, damage/drain subtracts from your score. But, if you don't subtract the full 9, you don't get a full 9 strength damage/drain, right? So, either you take 9 Str damage/drain and the spell "increases" it (using a loose interpretation of that word perhaps) or you don't take 9 Str damage/drain. There's no rule allowing for damage/drain to be "suppressed."

Regardless, even if you prefer the concept of suppression, I still think that's illogical. A spell that reduces your ability score should not also suppress damage/drain.