Why Aperture doesn't send the RAW file to Photoshop

Question

I've seen the complaint about Aperture not passing the original RAW file to Photoshop in several places in this forum. I think I have a reason for why Aperture doesn't work this way.
The reason has to do with the 1st law of digital RAW photography. "Never, ever, overwrite the original RAW data from a camera's RAW format file."
Because of the above rule, both Aperture and Photoshop do not actually work on the original RAW file. They transform the RAW image data into a usable image using user specified settings (which may be the camera's default setting for that image). The original RAW file is left untouched.
When you open a RAW file in Photoshop and try to save it, you'll be prompted for a new file name. You wouldn't want to overwrite the original RAW file by writing the edited image data back to it.
When you edit an Aperture RAW file using Photoshop as the external editor, Aperture first creates a TIFF or PSD version image file in its library and then passes that file name to Photoshop. Photoshop opens the TIFF or PSD file and directly edits it. Since this version file is already in Aperture's library, when Photoshop is finished editing it, Aperture automatically sees the edited file because its already in the library.
If Aperture were to send the RAW file name to Photoshop, Photoshop would open the RAW file and create a new PSD file. When it came time to save your edits, where would you save it. In order to get it back into Aperture's library, you would need some form of Photoshop to Aperture communication so that Photoshop would know where to save the edited file and Aperture would know to add it to the library. This would require collaboration between both Adobe and Apple and doesn't seem likely.
I have a couple of ideas someone can try. These are only ideas and completely untested. I'd do it myself but I don't own Aperture (see my computer info below for the reason).
1. Create two folders with automator actions. You export your RAW files from Aperture to a "Photoshop-IN" folder. Any new RAW image found in this folder will be automatically opened in Photoshop by the Automator action. Then you save the edited Photoshop file into a 2nd folder "Aperture-IN". Another Automator action imports this into Aperture.
2. In iPhoto, if you try to edit a RAW image with an external editor, iPhoto creates an intermediate image file (JPEG I think) which it passes to Photoshop. But, if you drag the original RAW image thumbnail from iPhotos library window to the Photoshop icon in the dock, the original RAW image file is passed to Photoshop. You only have the problem of getting the saved Photoshop file back into iPhoto's library. Maybe this same thing would work in Aperture by dragging the Master image to the Photoshop icon in the dock.
PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   FW800, 4 internal HD - 550GB

Answer 1

This is all well and good. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of keeping the "master" sacrosanct. What I object to is not being able to do the conversion in Photoshop (or elsewhere)
What I want is for Aperture to send the raw over to photoshop when I select "open in external editor", and then follow the current workflow (I do my edits, hit save, and a second master is added to Aperture's db.)
It's totally possible for them to do this, and it wouldn't break anything in the system, or the philosophy. Of course it's a workaround that wouldn't be necessary if Aperture's converter were up to snuff. But it isn't, and I bet it would be easier to implement the workaround than to fix the fundamental defects in the converter itself.