[Moto G Original Android Development] wskelly:
On all points:

1. Moto seems to think it is necessary on OTA's. Yes. I agree, this is the strongest point for doing so. And then we have my US retail Moto G, which according to others in this very thread hasn't yet gotten the OTA (I went to stock and waited, and it didn't happen). No one knows why. The Bootloader getting incremented from 0x4113 to 0x411n could mean *nothing* except that it is automatically incremented by the build tools at Moto. Who knows.

2. CM devs think it's necessary. This doesn't much matter to me at all because they didn't design the phone or know the reason for #1. CM is an open source project and for each phone we have independent developers doing what they think is right for the device (or are they all employees? I don't think so but maybe?). From what I know, no one from Motorola (the guys with the schematics and who designed the phone?) makes any decisions about what goes in or comes out of the Falcon branch. The only reason this assert is there might simply because of #1 above. And we don't know the reason for #1, so there is absolutely no reason to have an assert there. Leaving the bootloader alone will not hurt anyone or anything. Altering it MAY eff up your day. Someone here said they'd ask the CM devs why they are forcing the bootloader and the response was that it would be too difficult to find out (!!). I read that as, "We don't know, but because of #1 it seems like a good idea."

3. Random files. I'm glad you're not flashing random files, but there are plenty here that are. "Hey I have a dual SIM Moto G, what should I flash?" "Oh flash this one." "Should I really flash that? It says here not to." "Oh, you have a dual SIM? My bad that was the wrong one." "Hey what if I want to downgrade? I tried and now my phone is bricked." "Oh, you shouldn't have done that man." Why is this happening? See #2.

4. Actually I agree with you on this point, if you have a large number of users that have done it and have success with it, go for it. You already said you would avoid #3, so that's good. The main point is that you're doing it just because of #2. So the root cause of all of this bootloader nonsense is the stupid assert in #2 just because it seemed like a good idea. And yet I'm running without it, and it works. So is it going to melt in my pocket soon?

But for reference the hundreds of posts (for starters) from people with a bricked Falcon:

http://xdaforums.com/moto-g/help/how-to-revive-hard-bricked-moto-g-t2833798/page161

http://xdaforums.com/moto-g/general/guide-unbrick-moto-g-t3014289

http://xdaforums.com/moto-g/general/unbrick-method-t2794271

And as we read the threads, we'll find that if the bootloader is hosed you are SOL.

This has been beaten to death already and everyone is sick of hearing about it. But since we don't know a reason to do it, and CM allegedly has said that finding that reason is too difficult, the assert should not be there. There will be a bunch of people who still have 0x4113 (because this is the last OTA they got) who will come here and start doing the single most risky thing you can do to your phone, and there simply isn't a reason to take the risk. There just isn't.

It is pretty damn difficult to brick your phone. Really. The one sure way to do it is to mess w/ the bootloader.