Optional and required nature of @variable issue

Folks,

Per the action I took on the BPEL call this morning, I am proposing the
following issue text. Want to run it by you for a sanity check. Can you
pls let me know if this matches your understanding or if needs any
amendments..

Thanks.

The optional or required nature of Variable attribute is inconsistent
in the specification. On <receive> activity, onMessage clause of
the <Pick> activity the @variable is optional.  Where as on
<onEvent>
handler the @variable is required.  Additionally per section 15.1 it
is permissible in
abstract processes to omit the variable reference attributes from the
<invoke/>, <receive/>, and <reply/> activities.
However for executable processes there is no specification on the
optional or required nature of @variable. In the case of OnEvent
handler which can have
several simultaneous active instances, the @variable is defined to
be of @messageType declared within an implicit scope
associated with the event handler; upon
receipt of the input message the event
handler is required to assign the input message to the variable before
proceeding to perform
the event handler activity, which makes the @variable required.  This
inconsistency of  optional and required nature of the @variable on
different activities seems to be a source of confusion, that needs
to
be clarified in the specification.

Proposed Resolution: Consistently require the @variable on all
these
activities for executable processes making it optional for abstract
processes only.