I would like to have make some actions after ev_loop() drops out due to the ref count going to zero. These actions might setup new watchers or may not. Exposing activecnt will allow me to re-enter ev_loop if the reference count is increased. Example: https://github.com/ry/node/blob/f123a1ab40d33dbfe35667e9357b4b03c4549ab1/src/node.cc#L1970-1980