In certain hardware surveys (e.g., Steam), in order for a distribution to be accounted for the PRETTY_NAME os-release variable is used. Currently, this name plays a dual role in ostree, where it is...
i don't believe the container native image metadata is an issue... the concern is when rpm-ostree fails to write specific metadata to on-disk ostree deployment.
i've made this exact mistake... write tool that expects certain data, later remove the need for data so don't write it, realize in a panic after deploying that some users must use the older version which expects the data... chaos ensues