Just a general question however most of the z-wave devices I’ve installed come with the warning to ensure they’re placed in their “permanently installed location.”
Why is that? Is there some sort of one-time association made? Does this have to do with the mesh network somehow? If I chose to move a device, does unregistering and registering it not work?
Curiosity is getting the best of me here, figured some of you might know.
We were just discussing this in detail in another topic earlier this week. Read the following thread, all will be revealed. 
(This is a clickable link.)
Well that was an impressively quick response. Thanks for pointing me there—my google/forum-fu wasn’t bringing me any answers.
So the short answer, for posterity, is: it has to do with the mesh. Devices maintain a map of their neighbors to minimize hops between message sender / receiver. The map can be rebuilt with “Repair Z-Wave Network” in the app / on the site. So it’s not that devices cannot be moved, it’s that the network needs to heal from such a move by having the map forcibly rebuilt which requires an explicit action initiated by the controller—the aforementioned “Repair Z-Wave Utility” for SmartThings—and can take a bit of time.
And that a zwave network will not heal from such a move until you do run the system utility called “Z wave repair.”
Since the devices don’t come with the system utility, the device manufacturers don’t want to say the utility is necessary.
The system utility is part of a controller like the SmartThings hub.
But most people do what we call “bench pairing” all the time, which is where you first pair any device right next to the controller. And then you go install it in its permanent location.
Which is fine, as long as you run the system utility afterwards. 
Great. I’ve edited my response to clarify.
I greatly appreciate your insight, JD. Thanks!