If you plot fillsteps and limit the yrange to below the first y-value, fillsteps will exceed the graph border. This looks like an initialization issue. It can be avoided by duplicating the first dataline.
I would consider this as unexpected and don't see a reason why the fillstep should not be clipped at the graph border. Tested with gnuplot 5.4.1. This was triggered by this post https://stackoverflow.com/q/67148858/7295599
### plot with fillsteps
reset session
$Data <<EOD
1 12
2 8
3 6
4 4
EOD
set yrange [0:10]
set style fill solid 1.0 border
plot $Data u 1:2 w fillsteps lc 'red' ti "fillsteps", \
'' u 1:2 w steps lw 2 lc 'blue' ti "steps"
### end of code