> i strongly oppose this change due to the fact that now users have
> "write permission" to a subdirectory of /etc, even if limited (both
> in access and size).

I don't find this very compelling.  Of course users have limited write
permission to a subdirectory of /etc; why is that actually wrong?

Any anyway, this is a destructive argument.  Where should
user-writeable configuration information go?  /var was definitely a
Mistake (tm); putting configuration data there is asking for trouble.

The traditional answer has been the user's home directory (.forward,
for example).  These days, a user's homedir might not be accessible to
cron, though, and people now have an expectation that cron/crontab
will still work for users under that situation unless it has been
disallowed.

> also, read-only root's *are* coming (and maybe not too far away),
> and this cron change will totally break them.

Not totally; a symlink into something like /var/etc would repair the
situation.  (Or, alternatively, you could disable user access to
cron.)