I still think it's very worthwhile - I absolutely think it should be possible to prevent ModeShape from modifying content in external systems. For example, imagine a web application exposing some files on the file system but not wanting to allow any modification/changes to those files. (This is actually done on JBoss.org, though using 2.x.)

Now, I might be able to be convinced that this shouldn't be built-into all connectors, but instead built into those connectors that make sense. If that's what we want, then I would push for it to be added to the FileSystemConnector.

Perhaps we need additional feedback. I'll post to the forums.