Pre-Depends: dpkg (>= 1.15.7.2) for dpkg-maintscript-helper okay?

[Anders Kaseorg <andersk@MIT.EDU>]

According to dpkg-maintscript-helper(1), “using it unconditionally 
requires a pre-dependency to ensure that the required version of dpkg has 
been unpacked before.  The required version depends on the command used, 
for rm_conffile and mv_conffile it is 1.15.7.2:
    Pre-Depends: dpkg (>= 1.15.7.2)”

However, according to Debian Policy §3.5, “You should not specify a 
Pre-Depends entry for a package before this has been discussed on the 
debian-devel mailing list and a consensus about doing that has been 
reached.”

I see 4 packages currently in squeeze that declare ‘Pre-Depends: dpkg (>= 
1.15.7.2)’ (cron e16-data ntp ntpdate) and 9 in sid (apticron ccal cron 
lilo midori mozplugger ntp ntpdate usb-modeswitch), but I can’t find any 
discussion about this on debian-devel.

So, is it the consensus of debian-devel that adding a versioned 
Pre-Depends on dpkg as documented in dpkg-maintscript-helper(1) is okay?

The present context is that I’d like this Pre-Depends also added to git, 
which in the next upload will be using dpkg-maintscript-helper 
rm_conffile, but the maintainers are reluctant unless Debian Policy is 
strictly followed.

Thanks,
Anders