Mobile AD Accounts & files on network home

I am currently creating a new Mac service running on 10.6.4. The service consists of a variety of Mac client machines, authentication via AD & managed prefs through OD directory.
Client machines are bound to AD with mobile accounts, forced local home directories and UNC paths from AD to mount the network home.
All home sync option set to none through WGM
The problem I have is that when a new AD user logs in to a Mac some folders & files (typically Library/Preferences/*.plist files) get created on the network home and the user experience of that first login is of some preferences (such as dock icons) not applying fully. Subsequent logins for that same user are fine, even if the folders are deleted from network home, it just seems to be that first login, almost as if the local home folders are not ready for the login to complete.
The previous 10.5 service didn't give this same behaviour. We have changed the bind process now and are using a workflow within DeployStudio as opposed to our old bespoke Directory joining script, but in essence the configured settings are the same.
My questions then are:
1. Am I seeing expected behaviour
2. If not, is this new to 10.6?
3. Any thoughts or comments?

Mobile accounts are network accounts that have been converted for offline use. That's what the tools (e.g Workgroup Manager) support.
By playing with low-level settings, you might be able to get a local account to sync with a network share, but essentially you will be on your own.

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