Customer Dashboards and Customer Records

OK.  So we are struggling with something.  We have been able to define a customer dashboard using the administrator role that uses a different form than the form used for a normal customer record.  ie., we have a customer dashboard form and a customer record form.  When attempting to publish the customer dashboard to other roles we discovered we are unable to assign a customer dashboard form separate from a customer record form in any role except the administrator.  NS support has said this is as designed and filed an enhancement request.  The behavior seems odd to be "as designed".