It's a parctice that dates back to 2006 when the API was first written, and frankly isn't covered by the coding conventions. Same thing with the docblocks, they're all copypasted with some bits changed and don't even make sense if you look at them in the genereated code docs.
I don't feel that any of us depend on this anymore (get a better IDE), so in the inerest of consistancy it's time we said goodbye to it.
"I wouldn't object to stylizing the API code to bring it in line with
the rest of MW on principle, but I'm not gonna bother myself." --Roan
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/60657#c5108>
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* Instead of hiding read-restricted modules, throw an error when a user without read rights tries to use them
* Do the same for write modules when $wgEnableWriteAPI is false
* Indicate whether a module needs read or write rights in action=help and action=paraminfo
* BREAKING CHANGE: action=purge now requires write rights and, for anonymous users, a POST request
