Why (lambda () (run-hooks 'foo)) instead of just 'foo?

Question

I am studying the following code snippet taken from prelude-c.el:

;; taken from prelude-c.el

(defun prelude-makefile-mode-defaults ()
  (whitespace-toggle-options '(tabs))
  (setq indent-tabs-mode t))

(setq prelude-makefile-mode-hook 'prelude-makefile-mode-defaults)

(add-hook 'makefile-mode-hook (lambda ()
                                (run-hooks 'prelude-makefile-mode-hook)))

The author defined a function named prelude-makefile-mode-defaults, then made prelude-makefile-mode-hook an alias to it, and finally run it with lambda and run-hooks. This looks tedious to me. In my humble opinion, it can be simplified to

(defun prelude-makefile-mode-defaults ()
  (whitespace-toggle-options '(tabs))
  (setq indent-tabs-mode t))

(add-hook 'makefile-mode-hook #'prelude-makefile-mode-defaults)

Now it is much clearer, and they appears to have the same effect, but of course, the authors of prelude.el must be much more sophisticated than me, who is just a beginner. Is there any hidden advantage of writing down all these seemingly redundant code?

Answer 1

I believe the reason for this indirection is that it allows users of the package to override the package provided defaults by changing the value of prelude-makefile-mode-hook. The final component of the name prelude-makefile-mode-defaults is a strong hint in this direction, I think. But of course, only the original package author can give a definitive answer.