My goal is to try and get the cleanest slate I can and eliminate/reduce the risk of bugs that will force a hard reset and reflash later, after I've customized my device. It takes me an extra five minutes on the front end...so that seems worth it. I don't have any hard science backing up whether or not a hard reset before a flash is necessary. ...in the end, I just want to do what I can to ensure a good, clean flash.

I can also make some guesses as to why going back to Stock before a custom ROM is useful and clears up problems, but again, I don't want to put out any info I'm not 100% comfortable with.

Someone with more knowledge of how the flashing process works could definitely shed some more light here. Here's a very quick google search result on the subject: http://forum.xda-developers.com/arch.../t-529154.html

...sorry, this has NOTHING to do with this ROM, but hopefully helps.