my opinion of this is simple - I would distrust ANY script that was hidden like this. There is NO code THAT valuable that it needs protecting and point blank, if I cant read the code to see what's going on, I wouldnt even bother with the script (even if it came from a trusted source).
Call it paranoia if you want to, but I'll be paranoid while somebody else has a system wide virus that destroys their data - or worse and yes, that is all I see coming out of "locked script files".
