#required is not respected

In _form_options_expand() there is the following code at the bottom:

  // Remove properties that will confuse the FAPI.
  unset($element['#options']);
  $element['#required'] = FALSE;

Unfortunately, if I make an options element with #required => TRUE, this means that it gets set to FALSE. Only the manual textarea is set as required. But if I do not actually enter any key/value pairs in the options UI, it passes validation.

This is because _form_options_validate() checks $element['#required'], but because the module altered it to be FALSE, this condition never passes:

  // Check if no options are specified.
  if (empty($options) && $element['#required']) {
    form_error($element, t('At least one option must be specified.'));
  }

I'm wondering a bit why we can't actually just use the native #required property and what issues it actually causes. This has unintended side effects of missing required form indicators on the options element in the UI as well, which can confuse users.