Isn't obvious how it would be used?  Eventually we will post code that uses it, but we already have 40+ patches on reviewboard.  We would like to complete this first stage before we post our next stage.

On 5/12 Nilay said "No, it is not obvious to me why this patch is useful.  Since the code using this patch has not been posted on the reviewboard, this patch would not be reviewed and hence should not be committed till subsequent patches using this code are posted."
Nilay, we will be posting code that uses this patch in the coming months.  There is no cost to you for allowing this patch to be added and it will significantly benefit our release process.  I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't protest this rather simple and harmless patch.  Thanks!

What's the harm in moving this patch farther back in your queue? There should be no merge conflicts until it is actually used, at which point, we will be able to see review requests that use it.

We have several additional patches in our queue that we would like to concentrate on once we get these patches out.  We were try to get the "less controversial" patches out first so that we could then concentrate on the harder ones next.  We have a lot of software engineering / Mercurial engineering work remaining that would be simplified with less patches in our queue.