Once we merge the new python manifest file using a JSON format, it should be parsed automatically by bitbake, as opposed to having a script which translates from JSON to bash. This poses a few complications since parsing times are different from bash to python, and bitbake won't know which python packages exists until it reads the JSON file, which may lead to some unusual behavior. Up to this point, the manifest replacement will be complete, and we should be able to get rid of the script thats being used to create the manifest everytime.
Donde, but moving to 2.5 per Richard's request
Fixed in oe-core 3328211afdef8ffb00dd4dff1143959d5412b075.