But then there is the other direction, lusers are surprised
that lazy mkdirs are done, with lazy rpmdb creattion as well:

     rpm -qa --dbpath /tmp/XyZ
     ls -al /tmp/XyZ

I've been going in booth legacy compatible "strict" and forward  
looking "loose"
directions for years simultaneously.

Make the call, rip the other. I'm tired of explaining ...

73 de Jeff