diff --git a/src/backend/catalog/pg_attrdef.c b/src/backend/catalog/pg_attrdef.c
index f2773682dfb..1b6270b1213 100644
--- a/src/backend/catalog/pg_attrdef.c
+++ b/src/backend/catalog/pg_attrdef.c
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ StoreAttrDefault(Relation rel, AttrNumber attnum,
 	Relation	attrrel;
 	HeapTuple	atttup;
 	Form_pg_attribute attStruct;
+	Datum		valuesAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
+	bool		nullsAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
+	bool		replacesAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
 	char		attgenerated;
 	Oid			attrdefOid;
 	ObjectAddress colobject,
@@ -92,20 +95,15 @@ StoreAttrDefault(Relation rel, AttrNumber attnum,
 			 attnum, RelationGetRelid(rel));
 	attStruct = (Form_pg_attribute) GETSTRUCT(atttup);
 	attgenerated = attStruct->attgenerated;
-	if (!attStruct->atthasdef)
-	{
-		Datum		valuesAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
-		bool		nullsAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
-		bool		replacesAtt[Natts_pg_attribute] = {0};
 
-		valuesAtt[Anum_pg_attribute_atthasdef - 1] = BoolGetDatum(true);
-		replacesAtt[Anum_pg_attribute_atthasdef - 1] = true;
+	valuesAtt[Anum_pg_attribute_atthasdef - 1] = BoolGetDatum(true);
+	replacesAtt[Anum_pg_attribute_atthasdef - 1] = true;
 
-		atttup = heap_modify_tuple(atttup, RelationGetDescr(attrrel),
-								   valuesAtt, nullsAtt, replacesAtt);
+	atttup = heap_modify_tuple(atttup, RelationGetDescr(attrrel),
+							   valuesAtt, nullsAtt, replacesAtt);
+
+	CatalogTupleUpdate(attrrel, &atttup->t_self, atttup);
 
-		CatalogTupleUpdate(attrrel, &atttup->t_self, atttup);
-	}
 	table_close(attrrel, RowExclusiveLock);
 	heap_freetuple(atttup);
 
diff --git a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
index 7b7b09baaa8..13156391241 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
@@ -941,10 +941,6 @@ DefineRelation(CreateStmt *stmt, char relkind, Oid ownerId,
 	 * while raw defaults go into a list of RawColumnDefault structs that will
 	 * be processed by AddRelationNewConstraints.  (We can't deal with raw
 	 * expressions until we can do transformExpr.)
-	 *
-	 * We can set the atthasdef flags now in the tuple descriptor; this just
-	 * saves StoreAttrDefault from having to do an immediate update of the
-	 * pg_attribute rows.
 	 */
 	rawDefaults = NIL;
 	cookedDefaults = NIL;
@@ -953,11 +949,8 @@ DefineRelation(CreateStmt *stmt, char relkind, Oid ownerId,
 	foreach(listptr, stmt->tableElts)
 	{
 		ColumnDef  *colDef = lfirst(listptr);
-		Form_pg_attribute attr;
 
 		attnum++;
-		attr = TupleDescAttr(descriptor, attnum - 1);
-
 		if (colDef->raw_default != NULL)
 		{
 			RawColumnDefault *rawEnt;
@@ -969,7 +962,6 @@ DefineRelation(CreateStmt *stmt, char relkind, Oid ownerId,
 			rawEnt->raw_default = colDef->raw_default;
 			rawEnt->generated = colDef->generated;
 			rawDefaults = lappend(rawDefaults, rawEnt);
-			attr->atthasdef = true;
 		}
 		else if (colDef->cooked_default != NULL)
 		{
@@ -987,10 +979,7 @@ DefineRelation(CreateStmt *stmt, char relkind, Oid ownerId,
 			cooked->inhcount = 0;	/* ditto */
 			cooked->is_no_inherit = false;
 			cookedDefaults = lappend(cookedDefaults, cooked);
-			attr->atthasdef = true;
 		}
-
-		populate_compact_attribute(descriptor, attnum - 1);
 	}
 
 	/*
@@ -7363,8 +7352,7 @@ ATExecAddColumn(List **wqueue, AlteredTableInfo *tab, Relation rel,
 	 * and the later subcommands had been issued in new ALTER TABLE commands.
 	 *
 	 * We can skip this entirely for relations without storage, since Phase 3
-	 * is certainly not going to touch them.  System attributes don't have
-	 * interesting defaults, either.
+	 * is certainly not going to touch them.
 	 */
 	if (RELKIND_HAS_STORAGE(relkind))
 	{