Motd's protocol should be i32
The Motd struct represents the protocol version as an u16, but the protocol version (for mcbe at least) is always represented as an i32.
(I don't know why it is a signed integer, lets hope protocol version -42 is planned)
Due to the raknet docs not defining the motd and mojang rather doing their own stuff in this area, this is a bug of consistency.
A u16 was used here cause theoretically the number only goes up and will never exceed 65535 versions, but I guess we could change this for the sake of consistency.
this is rather "for the sake of consistency" like you mentioned. And I am certainly sure we will get protocol version -42 one day