I know this conversation is not about Macs, but of course on Macs we put everything and anything in /usr/local since there is no access to /usr. That is of course until we package it up into programs like INDIServer and KStars, or unless we are using craft or some other prefix in which case it will all be in there instead. . . . Just to throw in a couple of cents. . .
I've tested 1.30 with indiserver 1.7.4. with my own script for the needs of spectroscopy. The simple script communicates with the indiserver via indi_setprop and indi_getprop. Everything I tested worked well with the exception I mentioned earlier in this thread. The problem existed also in 1.29 so is more a problem of the code, not where the code resides.
So once again:
Human will is the kingdom of heaven!