I also used this mechanism more than one time on embedded project. Define a static variable with some metadata of the firmware and markers, such that tools (e.g. tools to perform an update) can, by simply using a regex on the binary file (that is a couple of kb at most) get metadata on the file, such as the version. This way you don't need to add another file header around the raw binary, something it's not always possible.
haha I've been bitten often enough by complex build systems (cough Yocto cough) to develop a habit of adding random strings to see what actually gets included in the final executable. When you have patches, patches patching other patches, hundreds of ifdefs and python mixed with shell scripts, it is often the only way to make sense of it all.
