Should debian-emacs-flavor symbol be allowed at large?

[Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>]

I just noticed the use of the debian-emacs-flavor symbol in
auctex's /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/tex-site.el file.

I'm wondering if debian-emacs-policy should forbid the use of
debian-emacs-flavor outside of the /etc/emacs* directories, or
rather inside of directories usually visible by unpackaged
Emacsen  (i.e setup whatever variable you want using
debian-emacs-flavor in /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50somefile.el, and
use that variable later).

The problem is that I startup (a non-packaged) emacs-21 and it
barfs on this.

Altenatively, should I simply setup my emacs21 to load debian-startup.el
and call `(debian-startup 'emacs)` ?

What do others do?

Peter