Now that's a new one on me!!
Think you may have hit the nail on the head though!
I have eaten toms from my outdoor plants which are blight ridden, but they certainly don't keep more than a few days, and if they had any brown on the skin I'd discard them as they have a strange flavour.
Not died yet!
I microwaved and froze my red toms off the blight ridden plants so they had no chance of going brown, and then used them during the winter.
Would have preferred to have eaten them fresh but it seemed the only way to rescue the crop.
What do other people do??