setuid & the super user

[utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!esquire!psl]

We keep coming across the following "feature" in releases of Unix from
Interactive Systems and are wondering if there is any reason it shouldn't
be called a bug.  Setuid is ignored for processes run by root.  That is to
say, the code that sets the effective uid for setuid programs specifically
checks to see if the real uid is 0, and if so ignores the setuid.  This has
caused us much trouble -- files created by setuid programs run by /etc/rc
belong to root instead of the rightful owner and are therefore unreadable
by the right people, (access fubars in general).
Has this been "fixed" in V7, V3.0, 2BSD, 4.1BSD, 32V?
Does anyone know a "good" reason to leave this little hack in the system?
							Peter Langston