You don't need root access to install SPrecovery, you install it before the OS even boots. SPrecovery is how I rooted my phone...
WHY do people insist upon continuing to propagate this??
Installing SPRecovery
*IS* rooting.
SPRecovery gives you the
ability to modify system files that a normal user cannot change. It does so by allowing you to install any unsigned update.zip files that you want to. su gives you the
ability to modify system files that a normal user cannot. It does so by allowing you to type a command to modify any files that you want to. Notice a similarity? I'll give you a hint - it's in italics.
Just because you don't have su installed, does
NOT mean that you didn't do the equivalent of rooting to get something else installed.
The Bottom Line here - people who don't want to root their phones should understand that running RSDLite and flashing SPRecovery gives the same result as conventional rooting - you end up with a phone that is modified from the stock form in a manner that is not approved by Verizon/Motorola, and is running software that is not approved by either of them. If somebody doesn't want to root, chances are, they ALSO don't want to be flashing alternate recovery consoles. And if they don't see the similarities between those two, they shouldn't be doing either. I don't want to deal with the mass of people saying "I don't understand how my phone got screwed up, I didn't even root!" but then proceed to explain how they used SPRecovery to install some random broken update.zip they found on megaupload.