Peter Clements

Good example Alpha Wolf. Even if the code that chooses where to spawn you checks for lava and does not place you in it, there could be lava source blocks close by that have not started flowing yet. As soon as you spawn it, the lava flows into the block that the game has placed you on and you burn up.

From what I have read in the comments, I assume people believe that the reason for change to spawning outside of the portal is to stop people looping back and forth repeatedly between the nether and the overworld if they do not move.

Personally, I find looping more desirable than burning in lava.

I would have thought that having a player be teleported to a portal block is always the safest place to be as lava and water cannot flow into them. If someone pours lava on top of or all around the outside of a portal, there will be no safe place to teleport a player to other than inside the portal.