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So I can re-enable statistics for side-loaded KePubs, but doing so creates an unhealthy "us versus them" situation.
As part of their normal sync operation, the Kobo wireless and Kobo Desktop sync operations will remove any book that it thinks would not be synced to the device. There's no way I've found to disable that behaviour, but it's also a perfectly reasonable thing to do. What happens to the side-loaded KePubs during the sync? The files are deleted from the Kobo device. If you have the setting to show all of your purchased books, they will remain in the library list but they become "download this book" entries which cause problems if you actually try to download them (because there's no Kobo book with that UUID), or if you only show books on the device they're removed from the Library view.
To have in-book reading stats for side-loaded KePubs, you therefore must (while you have side-loaded KePub files anyway) disable wireless on your device, never turn it back on, and never again use the Kobo Desktop software. Firmware updates either need to be side-loaded manually (although I bet I could write a calibre plugin to get them...), done when you have no side-loaded KePub files on the device, or done anytime over wireless or Kobo Desktop and then you would have to delete and re-send all your side-loaded KePub files.
As someone who never purchases books from Kobo anymore (I've found cheaper and/or better quality books elsewhere almost every time) this causes me personally no grief aside from how much time was wasted because Kobo would rather spend developer time breaking side-loaded files instead of fixing real bugs. But I know there are people who purchase books from Kobo, and this would cause extra effort in getting your purchases onto the device and may (because we don't fully understand the KePub structure) not be the same quality book you purchased.
I'd like to hear from you all with your opinions on whether you think side-loaded KePub stats are a good idea now that you know the issues. I'd also like to know if this makes you more likely to purchase Kobo books (and less likely to use this plugin) or more likely to purchase books from non-Kobo retailers and use this plugin for KePub features. Even if someone has already posted with your exact opinion; if only one person says it, I don't see all the others who agree. That said, please try to avoid a "me too" post; seeing an opinion sticks out more for me than seeing a quote and a "yea, what they said" post.
If anyone feels the need to contact Kobo about this, please remember to be polite, remember that this is third-party code that they have no obligation (and no ability) to support, and part of Kobo's job is to encourage people to buy more Kobo books.
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