I agree with your proposed change for git push behavior as described here: http://lwn.net/Articles/487131/ I'm also going to go change my push.default in .gitconfig now as the behavior described is actually what I desire.
We've recently moved to using git at Kiva, and so I'm also letting my colleagues know of this change to see if they have any comments.
Thanks for public notice.
Cheers,
-kevin Software Engineer http://www.kiva.org