mail:/etc/postfix# zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
rpool 481G 433G 94.5K /rpool
mail:/etc/postfix# uname -a
SunOS 11 snv_151a i86pc i386 i86xpv
The pool is always mounted by default, especially in SunOS, Solaris, IllumOS, FreeBSD and so on. It is true that on Solaris, if you use Boot Environments, that "/" (rootfs) is a dataset under the pool, but that is more for Boot Environment to be able to change which dataset to boot next. Even in those situations, the pool is mounted.
If Apple used to not mount the pool by default, then they diverged from the standard. Creating a pool, will always also create a pool dataset.
Now, if you still don't want to mount the pool, you can use the dataset properties to make that be the case. If anything, ZFS is flexible.
What Issue116 is about is creating a /dev/diskXX entry for each mount. If you have mounts; pool/ pool/A pool/B, then issue116 will create /dev/disk03 /dev/disk03s1 /dev/disk03s2. So that each mount will be using a unique /dev/diskXX when mounting. This is required in OSX, as all Installer scripts checks mount-from against the string /dev/disk to know if it is a volume. (Silly, but that's how it is).