sbillard - I'm familiar with the use of mod_rewrite, I just thought that the setup info might be confusing to users not using Apache, but where mod_rewrite is also supported. If the setup detects "not Apache", and gives the notice that .htaccess is not required, yet detects that mod_rewrite is supported and enables it, then a user might delete .htaccess thinking it is unnecessary. Not that it would cause the problem described above, but it may lead to other confusion. Maybe the notice about .htaccess not being required should be based on whether mod_rewrite is supported or not? This is assuming that variants such as lighthttpd still use .htaccess.
Sorry I wasn't more clear! :-)