[boost] Getting the reference out of boost::any

I became interested in subj and quickly found a discussion on boost mailing list dated Jan 2003 (http://lists.boost.org/MailArchives/boost/msg42284.php) where the majority seemed to agree on changing current semantics of boost::any_cast to allow getting the reference to held object. However, these changes never made it to the CVS. Was it by intent or was this issue banally forgotten?