I understand the implications of the Parasitic/ESD diode. That prevents any voltage from going above Vdd..
If not current limited it could result in device damage if above Vdd-0.3V. All of that is clearly stated in the datasheet.
However that does not support the the statement above about I2C inputs being "5V Tolerant".
What the datasheet (KL25) actually says is : "All digital I/O pins are internally clamped to VSS
through a ESD protection diode. There is no diode connection to VDD." So maybe I2C can go to 5V (probably not)?
Nothing in the datasheet indicates anything is "5V tolerant" directly.
Makes me wonder if the Digital I/O are more susceptible to static?
Datasheet also says:
"All analog pins are internally clamped to VSS and VDD through ESD protection diodes."
A true open-drain output, unless we are talking about something strange like a depletion-mode FET (we are not), can only *sink* current, it can not drive (source) current. An open-source output would only source and could not sink current.