[p4] Cherry-pick VS bulk integrate

[David Ferguson]

Does anybody else do both?
We have a  design model that uses what are basically functional branches that
are periodically merged down into a main integration branch, and then back up
into the other functional branches.  (development branches come off of main
as late as possible).
However, for various reasons (with which I disagree, but oh well) there are
often times when people will do an explicit cherry-pick of a change from one
branch into a different functional branch directly, not waiting for the merge
to occur.
 
Under certain scenarios of sufficient complexity, the final bulk merge can
have problems properly handling this situation and we have had cases where
the cherry-picked change was duplicated during the bulk merge without any
receiving any conflict or identical change type messages.  In speaking with
support about this, they have steadfastly stuck to a view that people should
either
 
1.  Only cherry-pick
2.  Never cherry-pick
and are fairly adamant that almost everyone follows one of those two models.
I find that hard to believe.  
 
Could you drop me a line if your shop combines selective cherry-picking with
bulk integrations?  I'd appreciate knowing whether we're really as unique as
they say we are...
 
-daf
David Ferguson
SCM Manager at VMware