Storing things side-by-side in a string like that was the only way prior to the creation of nVault Array. The nVault Array include just allows you to do it more elegantly in code, even though it's not the most efficient thing in the world.
It's not unheard of/unusual for plugins to require 3rd-party includes, so I wouldn't always rule them out. You can make your code much cleaner using nVault Array, just throwing it out there.