ah! good, i was worried my experiments had tainted something.
well not good but... you know what i mean.
having not dug too much into the source I've just been making style adjustments via:
Lua Code:
--
local style = function(frame, sOptions, fOptions)
if frame.styled then return end
-- style stuff
frame.styled = true
end
local f = CreateFrame'Frame'
f:RegisterEvent'NAME_PLATE_CREATED'
f:SetScript('OnEvent', function(self, event, ...)
local base = ...
style(base.UnitFrame)
end)