It was part of a larger optimization to speed up "cordova prepare" during which lots of files were re-parsed several times (once per plugin). Looks like we introduced both changes at about the same time (Jan/Feb) this resulted in double caching and overwriting. Before the two of our changes the extra glob was executed per plugin during prepare and was one of the largest time wasters.

Anyway, right now the glob will only run once so it's not a big deal.
LGTM. Merging this PR.