Please give some more details on "more cover-up work needed". Thanks.
On jailbroken devices, if the proper measures aren't taken when restoring in the "normal" state, you can brick your device or cause your upgrade to be fragmented, meaning you'll have to create a custom IPSW to restore to bypass/fix any issues. Commonly on the iPhone in particular, users commonly brick their baseband because they fail to follow instructions when removing certain tweaks or apps that affect the core files, and those files are not overlooked in a non-DFU state, which can cause errors when unloading the iOS package onto your device.
By spending 20 seconds to put your device into DFU mode, you eliminate software problems from your equation as a jailbroken user. By spending 20 seconds, you can narrow down any problems that your device has at the immediate point of view. By spending 20 seconds, you can restore your device in a matter of minutes, rather than to spam threads on multiple forums requesting/begging for help when you could've avoided the problem from the start by putting your device into DFU mode and restoring.
If you have a 3GS, 4, iPad 1 or iPad 2 at hand that you want to throw away, install Ac1dSiri or any other Siriport properly into a working state, and restore it in the normal state using iTunes. I can guarantee you that you'll have a really expensive yet very light brick in minutes. Even with a DFU restore, if you don't take the proper measures to restore the critical core changes, you'll still end up with more trouble than you'd like and potentially still end up with a bricked device.