file.install display: logic of not null with default 1?

Hi Folks,

I am using 7.41 and all modules are up to date.

I came across an interesting error when doing a feeds import using media and remote stream wrapper "SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1048 Column 'field_file_display' cannot be null".

So, I went poking around the db and found the culprit field and its description "Flag to control whether this file should be displayed when viewing content". So I went to file.install and found this interesting schema:

      'display' => array(
        'description' => 'Flag to control whether this file should be displayed when viewing content.',
        'type' => 'int',
        'size' => 'tiny',
        'unsigned' => TRUE,
        'not null' => TRUE,
        'default' => 1,
      ),

So I am trying to understand why it is necessary to set not null as TRUE if default is being assigned a value?

Has this question been raised before? Can I provide a patch to set not null to FALSE?

Of course I am now going to the modules to raise the issue of providing a value to the display field, but I am curious if this should be patched here.

Thanks.