How pretty is pretty? git cat-file -p inconsistency

From: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date: Oct 7, 2011, 08:44 UTC
Message-ID: <4E8EBC00.90909@drmicha.warpmail.net>

diff <(git cat-file -p tags/v1.7.7) <(git cat-file tag tags/v1.7.7) 4c4 < tagger Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Fri Sep 30 14:21:06 2011 -0700 ---

> tagger Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 1317417666 -0700

vs.

diff <(git cat-file -p tags/v1.7.7^{}) <(git cat-file commit tags/v1.7.7^{})

(no diff)

That is, "cat file -p" pretty prints dates for tag objects but not for commit objects. In fact, "-p" on commit objects does not prettify at all compared to the raw content. Is that intentional? I'd suggest prettifying dates with "-p" for commit objects also. But just how plumbing is the "-p" mode of "cat-file"?

Michael