Just discovered in pd-extended (from the [gate] help patch) that setting the open outlet by passing a number to the right-hand inlet also pops that number out the left outlet.
So if I want to send data out one of two outlets and not pollute one of those outlets with the outlet index, I actually have to make a [gate 3] and never use outlet=1.
This is (IMO) counterintuitive enough that's it's worth asking what is the rationale.
No big deal, I'll just add the extra dummy outlet. Just curious.