What practical reason could there be for teaching the difference parenthesis make with regard to negative number bases with exponents?

This question came up at work yesterday, and my co-worker and I kind of wrestled with it. Basically, everything that I’m seeing says that when dealing with a negative base, when it has parenthesis around it, if the exponent is an even number, the answer will be a positive number. If the exponent is odd, the answer will be a negative number. So (-3)^2 = 9 ........... (-3)^3 = -27 (-3)^4 = 81. Pretty straight forward. Until you take the parenthesis away. From what I’m seeing, if there are no parenthesis the answer will ALWAYS be negative. So….... -3^2 = -9. =3^4 = -81
See Purple Math

That is easy enough to remember I suppose..but WHY? I don’t recall ever learning this in math classes I’ve taken in the past. I noticed in Purple Math, at the bottom of the paragraph of explanations it specifically mentions programming. Is this type of subtlety programming specific? If so, why should we even teach it? Is there a common application where this difference may be used?

It seems to me that it creates a tempest in a tea pot. Confuses things that are already confusing for a student.

I’m asking your opinions so I can determine the best way to teach this to my students. If I can mention the difference to them, then say, “But for our purposes lets always assume an odd exponent yields a negative answer, and an even exponent yields a positive answer, etc….” I’d rather be able to do that.