I don't understand how this will report a wrong value. If you start Pd and turn the DSP on, then [f ] will hold 1, right? If you bang it, it will output 1, which is the DSP state. And if you turn the DSP off, it will hold 0. How is that wrong? 

If the abstraction/patch is instantiated after DSP has been turned on then the [f ] object (within the respective abstraction) will not hold the correct value as it never received a change. I think this is case with respect to Katja's original problem when opening help patches.