All of the pixel transfer functions can take either a buffer object+offset or a client CPU pointer (unlike VAO functions, for example, which can only work with buffers now). As such, allowing you to pass a buffer object+offset directly would require having a separate entrypoint for each of the two ways of doing pixel transfer. So they would need glNamedReadPixelsToBuffer
and glNamedReadPixelsToClient
.
So instead of further proliferating the number of functions (and instead of forbidding using client memory), they make the buffer part work the way it always did: through a binding point. So yes, you're still going to have to bind that buffer to the PACK/UNPACK binding.
Since pixel transfers are not exactly a common operation (relative to the number of other kinds of state changing and rendering commands), and since these particular binds are not directly tied to the GPU, it shouldn't affect your code that much. Plus, there's already a lot of context state tied to pixel transfer operations; what does one more matter?