little bug in 8.3?

Hello,
We just upgraded from 8.2.4 to 8.3, on red hat 4ea/as.
I did not keep a back up of PGDATA so I can not say for sure, but it
seems that in the 8.2.4 release of postgres, pg_hba.conf had these
contents:
#listen_addresses='localhost' and if non localhost connections were
needed than the parameter had to be altered to:
Listen_addresses='*'

In the 8.3 release of postgres, pg_hba.conf has this contents

"The commented-out settings shown in this file represent the default
values.
# - Connection Settings -

#listen_addresses = '*' # what IP address(es) to listen on;
# comma-separated list of
addresses;
# defaults to 'localhost', '*' =
all
# (change requires restart)
#port = 5432 # (change requires restart)
..."
Based on the quoted line above and general behavior of other parameters
in the hba, one would assume that "#listen_addresses='*'" would by
default allow non local host connections, but it does not. The line has
to be uncommented out in order for non localhost machines to be "heard",
I know it also says "defaults to localhost" so which is it?
Defaults to localhost or commented-out settings represent the default?
Is that a little bug or did my mind go blank about how it was in 8.2.4?
Thank you,
Kasia