I have to agree, that sounds logical. Now, suppose you could make these functions available in an easy to use way using a script file or something similar? I think it would make a great addition for non-professionals not so familiar with C/C++ to be able to save their freshly altered models from the running engine. So, by means of not overweighting the engine itself, you could provide these functions in a dll and provide a template script or something of the kind that makes them easier to use.
More clearly, what I am thinking of is something like that:

Code:

---

#include "i-want-to-save-my-models.c"

void doSomeKindOfMeshDeforming()
{
  //move around vertices etc. from a loaded model
  ent_savefile( "myAlteredModel.mdl" );
}




...and that would be about it. Something this easy to use would be enormously useful. From my experience, you rather often tend to use the functions for mesh deforming and those things and end up with good results that you want to use next time you start up your level. Since there is no way to save the modified entity, however, you will finally have all vertex positions written to a textfile and deform the entity at level start according to that data.
This is rather not so surprisingly not the fastest method. It would open up a whole range of possibilities being able to easily save altered entities to MDL files.