Front page does not allow maintenance mode template page

When a site is in maintenance mode, Drupal seems to redirect non-permissioned users to the front page instead of a maintenance template page with the Front Page module.

Not quite sure why, but maybe it's related to:

http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes%21menu.inc/function/_menu_site...
"This function will log the current user out and redirect to front page if the current user has no 'access site in maintenance mode' permission."

In either case, my solution was to add this around line 110 (sorry, not access to patch tools right now):

// Site is in offline mode - don't redirect
if (variable_get('maintenance_mode', 0)) {
return;
}

Maybe this should be an admin option (don't redirect if site is in maintenance mode) - not sure if there is a case where the Front Page module should work under maintenance?

-Daniel
Ensemble Coworking Space New York