Sure, I understand that. I guess I'm being dense in regards to how you think Composer *should* manage these packages.

Using Composer to install WP-CLI, `~/.wp-cli/composer.json` is used to manage WP-CLI and its dependencies. The file cannot be used to manage community packages. If used to manage community packages, we have to define WP-CLI as a dependency of those packages. Furthermore, using Composer to install WP-CLI means `~/.wp-cli/vendor/autoload.php` is used to auto-load WP-CLI.

The problem at hand isn't how to load the auto-loader. There's two ways to do that — as I've implemented, and as you've described. Yours requires creating a file that doesn't exist, something I think it worthwhile to avoid if we can. It also doesn't explain where the `composer.json` should live for community packages.

The problem at hand is where to locate the `composer.json` for community packages such that we have one solution for both Composer- and Phar-based installs. I don't care to solve this two ways, and think it acceptable to put the whole shebang in its own directory, the location of which can be easily customized.