Yes, it would be preferable if unittest could load the set of test classes for each of these test modules without *requiring* a load_tests function.

Each test module will need looking at to see if the standard set of test classes exported by the module is the same as the set built by load_tests. Where they are the same load_tests is not needed. 

I *presume* the point of this patch is that these test modules *can't* just be run by the standard unittest invocation, and load_tests is *needed*.

(And I don't know what you mean by "predicate the support classes" Matt.)