The following post was written from our DaVinci family point of view, but probably applies to our OMAP family as well
https://community.ti.com/forums/t/750.aspx
I don't know if this has been mentioned earlier somewhere else - in my set-up of dev environment, i login as normal user to write/compile the codes in the nfs-mount area of the host linux. In the /etc/exports, adding "no_root_squash" allows me to try out the changes right away on the EVM using local root there.
I do not believe this has been explicitly mentioned, but you bring a good point. During development phase, this is the recommended set-up as you can quickly test any changes you make in the source code. The Getting Started Guide does suggest "no_root_squash", but does not discuss why.