Is Entitlements.plist still necessary for distributions in Xcode? I've had no problem building ad-hoc distributions without it, but some documentation and many posts still describe it as required.
According to Ole Begemann you do not required Entitlements.plist for AdHoc Distribution:
There is a link to Technical Note TN2250, which state the details:
Code Signing Entitlements
Previous to Xcode 4.x, it was required that the developer create a Code Signing Entitlements file in the Application Bundle for Ad Hoc testing, that defines the entitlement "get-task-allow" with a value of "false" (un-checked). However with Xcode 4 that is no longer required so long as the application is shared via deferred signing on the Application Archives panel in Organizer. See the section Using the Build And Archive feature of Xcode for Deferred Code Signing for more information.