I never said anything about debugging being used for malicious actions, as it does give you a remote debugging terminal as a normal user, just as your application would run on the device normally. With debugging enabled, this enables ADB access, so that you can install packages in seconds on the device. Rather than copying to an SD, or over WiFi. To install packages over the ADB channel, one does not require ROOT permissions.

Unless your developing a driver or some low-level application on the device, such as a special service. Your application should not require ROOT permissions to run. For normal eDGe application development, you and your application should only require debugging access via ADB/GDB in Eclipse. Unlike traditional Linux machines, to install new packages, you do not require ROOT permissions. Think along the side of make install, although one could just change the PREFIX and install the binaries in their home directory...

I have been using Linux for many years, and frown upon Microsoft for running their XP machines as Administrator from first install. On my Linux machine, I know when I need to use su, and when my applications should not require them. For the most part, I only need root to use cryptsetup, make install, and installing packages via the package manager. My system does not even have sudo installed, due to the security paranoia I have with my data. If for some reason Android does require ROOT for developers, please include a link here, as I'm rather curious on why it would require such permissions.

My LG Eve is only rooted, because LG does not release their Android updates as swiftly as the open source community. Who doesn't like being stuck in the past with a really old Android release that can do nothing but be a paper holder. Mind you, the phone does not run as root from boot, the ROM came with a root whitelist application, so unless I authorize the app, I'm safe for the most part. Android Spyware is all I have to worry about.

I do not know anybody who uses a modded Wii for legit purposes. If your a proud Wii homebrew developer, that's great to hear. I originally bought a PS3, because it supported a fully explorable Linux dual-boot system. This way I could compile and test applications with the new Cell processor, it was much fun. Unfortunately, the homebrew community got a little too overwhelming for Sony, and they blocked out the Linux dual-boot. The moral of this story, is basically watch which devices you root, hack, mod, etc... It can have a bigger impact than you might first imagine. Because of the PS3 hacker community, I lost easy, affordable access to a Cell processor chip.