When you set `.spec.general.validationMessages: true` in SMCP, the OSSM operator sets  `PILOT_ENABLE_STATUS` and `PILOT_ENABLE_ANALYSIS` ENVs to true on the istiod pod.

Before Istio 1.16.3 (e.g. in SMCP 2.3), the combination of those ENVs also starts  distribution.Reporter,

however, from Istio 1.16.3 (changelog, fix for issue Issue #42612), there needs to be set also`PILOT_ENABLE_CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION_TRACKING=true` ENV (see here) in order to starts statusReporter for distribution (see here).

So when we want to have the distribution reporter started under `validationMessages` SMCP api, we need to add also that ENV here and here )

However, PILOT_ENABLE_CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION_TRACKING is used also elsewhere so we need to check whether enabling that doesn't affect other functionality.

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If you want to enable it manually, here is a workaround for SMCP 2.4 and more: (Keep in mind that PILOT_ENABLE_CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION_TRACKING is not used only for starting statusReporter)

oc patch smcp <SMCP_NAME> -n <SMCP_NAMESPACE> --type merge -p '{"spec":{"runtime":{"components":{"pilot":{"container":{"env":{"PILOT_ENABLE_CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION_TRACKING":"true"}}}}}}}'