1.4 Breaks existing code using html() for XML data island

1.4 Breaks existing code using html() for XML data island

The change in 1.4 to check for nodeType==1 breaks working code that wants to get an xml island as a string using the html() method.  Skipping please the esoteric responses that one should not use xml islands, what's the reasoning behind it?  Nothing in the change log or blog release notes talks about it. 
 
We upgraded to 1.4 last week and this is the 4th case of working code that no longer works!
 
-= Jab