This is merely for a debugging module to offer hints for what's going on under the hood.

I understand that, but I still can't see the purpose. That is, to derive any benefit from a hint that a module was required rather than used, when debugging or otherwise, there would have to be some practical, effective difference in the way the module performed in those two scenarios. If there is no difference, then there is no benefit to knowing.

And if there is a difference, then eventually someone is going to find a way of either:

• exploiting that difference to provide some additional functionality.
• detecting that difference so as to counter the effects of it in the way their module performs.

Since I couldn't (and still cannot) think of any difference in the way a module would perform dependant upon whether it was required or used, I couldn't see the benefit of jumping through hoops to make the determination.