I must agree. This interpretation is obvious, sensible, and is in the spirit of the SSH protocol. This is why the spec doesn't spell it out (though Iagree it should).If it's so obvious then why have a number of different people been unableto guess the "obvious" interpretation?
The "number of different people" that you refer to is 1. Thomas is a newbie who understood the concept the instant it was explained.
If implementors are having difficulty interpreting what the spec is tryingto say then by definition it cannot be "obvious".
It's not obvious to you because you've always refused to accept SSH the way it is, and have always tried to shoehorn it into something it is not - something more along your way of doing things, not necessarily bad, but idiosyncratic.