The fact that 13 files were doing it should suggest that it was
intentional. Might want to wait a bit longer while someone dregs up the
history.
Not necessarily. At one time it was required. Then someone
(either Stan Shebs or John Metzler, I forget) revamped the way
target vectors are created, so that it is no longer required.
These may either be legacy, or someone doing the initialization
from habit. In any case, it's definitely not required now.
I know it was John Metzler but I don't have the details of what exactly
he did. Do you?