After some reports - it seems mixing PE/SE is more common than I thought.
The separation is actually highly specific for runnign with DeDup and is not necessary for markduplicates (which is also more well known and used).
DeDup can actually accept BAMs with it mixed, but will not necessarily work 'as expected' - so better to allow and throw a warning that it is not optimal.
After some reports - it seems mixing PE/SE is more common than I thought.
The separation is actually highly specific for runnign with DeDup and is not necessary for markduplicates (which is also more well known and used).
DeDup can actually accept BAMs with it mixed, but will not necessarily work 'as expected' - so better to allow and throw a warning that it is not optimal.