OK, so there is some truth in the EDL difficulties expressed in this thread - but I'm sure most of the resistance is actually unfounded.
A top-down EDL is achieved with EDL manager using the V-ALL option instead of choosing a particular video track. It simply looks down from above, showing the uppermost clip at any time. Yes, they'll need to disable or delete overlay tracks like burn-ins etc - but this takes seconds.
The new Media Composer list tool has a similar mode (though the initial release did not).
Premiere does not have such a feature so they need to export 1 EDL for each relevant video track. However, Premiere does export FCP XML files and this is a simple 1 step process and, when it works, a more powerful option than EDL.
http://thecargocult.nz/manuals/lettertoed_premiere.pdf
Yes, Conformalizer can handle multiple EDLs per picture cut. No problem.
But... as I mentioned earlier, there's something about to drop which will change this landscape significantly.
Justin