Recovery Partition mandatory for File Vault and unencrypted TM Backup?

I recently had to setup my Macbook Pro from scratch meaning erasing the whole disk and start from there.

The update to Lion took already place a while ago and I had File Vault active. After making a last backup using

TM I erased the disk and all partitions including Recovery partition and used the Leopard system DVD to boot

the machine.

From there I used the restore function to restore my TM backup to the MacBook. However, as the drive was

not partioned and not formated, I had to do this manually. Apparently, the recovery process via TM does not include

that. After system recovery, I booted from the Macbook and all apps and configuration seemed ok.

I was a little surprised to see that I was able to do this recovery without being asked for ID and password of the user's File Vault access

or the File Vault recovery key. All I needed was the TM ID and password (which is different from the owners ID and password)

I am not sure if this is supposed to work like this but I looks rather easy to gain access to application an data of another user if that

is all it takes?

Now booting Lion again, I checked File Vault and noticed it was disabled although it was enabled for quite a while and long time

before I took the latest backup. I could not turn it on, after providing a recovery key and asking me wether I wanted to write it down

or safe it with Apple which I declined I wanted to reboot the notebook to start encryption but stopped saying my partition or volume

would not support File Vault. This was GUID and MacOS Extended Journal partition and volume which to my knowledge would

certainly support File Vault. In fact this is basically what I had before when File Vault was turned on and running.

I called Apple support a few times. The second agent told me that it does not work because there is not recovery partition on my

system but there was when I took the latest backup and I do have other means to get the recovery screen. Anyway it seems that

File Vault required a local Recovery partition and I was wondering if anyone can tell me why this dependency exist. If I write down the

recovery key, why would I need it to be stored on my disk as well?

Also, if anyone has an idea if there is a way of creating a local recovery partition without having to go through the lenghty process of installing

Leopard then upgrade to Lion and install all the apps and configure the OS again, would be great? I assume when I am back on Lion and use the TM

backup for recovery, I probably end up with having the Recovery partition deleted and start from scratch again.

I am a little concerned about the fact that it seems so easy to gain access to a protected backup and that the TM restore process does not include

restoring partition and volumes as well. Who knows how many other dependencies exist and users have to reinstall their system again after recovery.

I was following the recovery instruction of Apple but perhaps someone knows a better way to do this?