I have no idea about the actual implications, or how that is a change from how it used to be, I made a local copy of the github after 1.7.6 so they had made the change at that point...
Frankly the official "DayZ Mod" is marked for death anyway...
I think everyone thought sooner rather than later, but as it turns out NOT the case...
Frankly the base code is too F'd up from what I understand, as is the DB... and some other ground level things that cause Rocket and most Devs who've tried to make their own version to abandon ship...
We think we've got some new fresh ideas that will negate a LOT of those concerns... so we're trucking forward... even if the official DayZ Mod is killed off... we're not going anywhere and trust me that will mean something when what we're working on is out.