Is this a known feature of 8.1 SSL connection?

I don't recall this being an issue with 8.4 I am also using

Say your 8.1 server has SSL on.  Even though pg_hba.conf have

host or hostnossl .... md5

either server or 8.1 psql  insists that you have .postgresql/postgresql.*

Does that make sense to you?

Note: no "cert" in pg_hba.conf