That means a blank line after most commands' output, and I find that unsightly.
Is there any way of getting bash to only output a '\n' if the cursor isn't already at the start of a line?
Recommendation: Try it for a week or so, and you may not go back. I've found it to be helpful to have more space between commands.
Exactly. I got tired of the occasional command that didn't add a final newline, often my own sloppy "perl -e" output. So, my prompt starts with a newline, just in case the previous command had unfinished business.