There are a multitude of API consumers out there that would expect this kind of behaviour by default. For example, reader apps like our native apps, and other third party apps, would likely prefer the forwarding to happen automatically without having to write additional code.

That said, there are also a multitude of API consumers that would not prefer this kind of behaviour. Examples of this include people that are looking for things and expecting to find zero results, which includes a lot of scripts run by advanced users and external services like Lagotto. If the default were changed, they would have to write additional code to handle it.