What is the right way to manage Cordova's plugins & platforms ?

On a project using [email protected] & [email protected], I face 2 possibilities:

with Cordova (config.xml)

cordova create dummy-project && cd dummy-project
cordova platform add browser --save
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-device --save

## If forgot to add `--save` option, manually update config.xml
#cordova platform save
#cordova plugin save

# reset platforms & plugins, like we just checked out the repository
rm -rf platforms plugins

# `cordova prepare` automatically setup platforms & plugins
# dependencies via config.xml
cordova prepare

Pros

• Platforms and plugins belong to the Cordova realm, so it seems intuitive to use cordova

• Platforms and plugins versions are saved in config.xml like below:

  <plugin name="cordova-plugin-device" spec="~1.0.1" />
  <engine name="browser" spec="~4.0.0" />
  

• Multiple developers who checkouts the repo will get the same dependencies

Cons

• Yet another config file config.xml which clutters the project's root directory
• Duplicate infos in plugins/fetch.json and platforms/platforms.json ?
• Must explicitly add --save option

with Ionic (package.json)

ionic start dummy-project blank && cd dummy-project
ionic platform add browser
ionic plugin add cordova-plugin-device

# reset platforms & plugins, like we just checked out the repository
rm -rf platforms plugins

# fetch platforms & plugins dependencies via package.json
ionic state restore

Pros

• Project's dependencies consolidated into package.json with the following custom keys:
  • cordovaPlugins
  • cordovaPlatforms
• Autosave behaviour when adding a platform or plugin

Cons

• No version pinning for plugins nor platforms in package.json (that's a huge blocker for me)
• Why not put cordova plugins & platforms into dependencies since they are NPM packages anyway ? ionic could symlink the dependancies between node_modules & {plugins,platforms}/

Are the ionic & cordova developers considering a unification/refactorisation of this matter ?