So, was the outcome of the St Andrews negotiation really "bigger than the Belfast Agreement"?
We may have a greater sense of the reality after hearing from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in London later this morning, but at this writing, the intriguing thing is that neither the DUP nor the British government is seeking to resile from that assessment.
An "astonishing breakthrough" was secretary of state Peter Hain's verdict yesterday. "This time everybody will be under the tent," senior British sources were quoted saying. "If he [ Ian Paisley] is in government with Martin McGuinness, then it is well and truly over."
Instructive also, perhaps, is that UK Unionist Party leader Robert McCartney has little doubt this is a done-deal, having voiced suspicions about a "pre-cooked" agreement even as the parties prepared to travel to Scotland.
It will be fashionable for both governments and the media to dismiss Mr McCartney, much as he and Dr Paisley were disregarded in 1998 and it would seem to be hard, if not impossible, to outflank Dr Paisley on the right. However DUP election strategists will at least see potential dangers in a combined challenge from survivors of the first No campaign and an Ulster Unionist Party possibly rejuvenated by the promised spectacle of Dr No finally saying Yes.
Moreover, the DUP's MEP Jim Allister may be unable to halt agreement now while thinking to position himself in readiness to challenge Peter Robinson in any eventual battle for the leadership succession.
Mr Allister and Mr McCartney may also be content for the moment that the DUP has not formally committed and might hear more than it would like in the forthcoming widespread "consultation" with the party and wider unionist community.
They may also anticipate that some initial unionist confusion will give way to hostility if it transpires that Sinn Féin has a rather different take on the "St Andrews agreement".
This would seem likely because - as Mr Adams used frequently to remind David Trimble - the peace process is never "a one- way street" or about a "single-issue" agenda.
For the moment the DUP has got its spin in first, with Dr Paisley signalling a readiness to share power while publicly parading his policing terms hoping to ensure republicans take the rap if the deal fails.
But is the wholesale recruitment of young republicans to the PSNI promised, even on the tail of a public oath sworn by Mr McGuinness to support the police and other criminal justice institutions? Or will continuing alienation and distrust - not to mention a lack of places - be cited by Sinn Féin leaders as reason still for alternative forms of "restorative justice" and community safety schemes?
Will republicans regard the promise to reduce employment barriers and enhance the reintegration of former prisoners as a prelude to scrapping "criminal" records, possibly even opening the door of the PSNI, its reserve or ancillaries to former activists?
Dr Paisley reportedly left Scotland with his pockets "stuffed full" of side-bar letters. But what of the Taoiseach's original side-bar letter to Mr Adams on Good Friday 1998 about representational rights for Northern Ireland MPs in the Dáil? A lot of devils then may yet be lurking in the detail.
Maybe Sinn Féin has finally decided it has squeezed as much as it can from the internal Northern process and realises that a DUP victory over policing is the necessary price for the now-higher priority of getting back into government ahead of next year's Irish election.