Unit Testing, problem with requestContextDecorator

We are using a requestContextDecorator that looks a little like this:

<cffunction name="configure" access="public" returntype="void">
  <cfscript>
    buildAssetScaffold();
    return;
  </cfscript>
</cffunction>

<!---
other stuff...
--->

<cffunction name="buildAssetScaffold" access="private"
returntype="void" description="Used to help construct the foundation
to manage assets.">
  <cfscript>
    var prc = getRequestContext().getCollection(private = true);

    prc.assets = {};
    // The queue allows the assets to be include by path into the page.
    prc.assets.queue = { js = [], css = []};
    // Includes allow the content of an asset to be injected into the
page.
    prc.assets.include.js = [];
    prc.assets.json = '';
    //return;
  </cfscript>
</cffunction>

Other methods within the decorator assume the existence of 'assets'
withing the private collection and this causes an issue with unit
testing because of the last two lines in the setup() method of
coldbox.system.testing.BaseTestCase:

getRequestContext().clearCollection();
getRequestContext().clearCollection(private=true);

In other words, during the coldbox setup in the unit tests, the
decorator is initialized and creates a variable in the private
collection; shortly after, the collection is cleared by the code
above. When the individual tests run, they fail (throw an error)
because other code within the decorator is presuming the existence of
that variable.

Personally, I would like to see code in the decorator do something
like this:

var assets = event.getValue('assets', getAssetsScaffold()); //
getAssetsScaffold() would return the bare assets struct
// do stuff
event.setValue('assets', assets);

However, the unit test is falling over here on a request that works
without problems in the working environment. Is there an argument for
removing the clearCollection() calls in the BaseTestCase or is there a
stronger case for the lines being there (I presume there is).

Would love to hear your thoughts (I'm brand new to ColdBox (and loving
it)).

Dominic