Yeap. And not just that one, pretty much any leak. The link posted above to XDA is just the latest example, but if you follow Android Central and other 'droid blogs, you'll see leaks for all kinds of devices over time.
To your question about needing to have root to flash a leak, the answer is no. A leak comes from the phone maker and is sent to the carrier for approval. Because rooting is
not supported anywhere along official line, the software is written expecting to be installed on a fully stock phone. Installing a leak if you have root almost always breaks root, because HTC and Verizon are certainly not going to push out rooted software.
A "leak", as we know it, is always in the form of an RUU, which stands for ROM Update Utility. When HTC takes Android source code and updates it with Sense and other tweaks, they compile that into an RUU and send it to Verizon for approval, officially called "Technical Acceptance". An RUU is software intended to be used by carrier support guys behind the scenes, it's not really meant for customers to ever see it. There are rare exceptions, but that's another story.
There's a lot of back and forth on this process as bugs are identified and squashed, and during this time, a few or many RUUs could leak out. An RUU is essentially HTC (or Motorola, Samsung, ect) saying "OK Verizon, this looks good. Send it out." Verizon replies with "not good enough; fix these bugs" and so HTC goes back and it's wash/rise/repeat. Once a good one (as close to bug free as possible) is approved by Verizon (Technical Acceptance), it's pushed out via OTA (over the air) for the masses.. it's this notification that we've all been waiting for.
In the mean time, while all this has been going on, the RUU that actually makes it to acceptance has likely already been leaked and installed by more than a few eager enthusiasts, which is why the OTA wouldn't hit those folks. The exception to this rule is a scenario where Verizon releases a more up to date OTA from an RUU that never got leaked. It's rare, mostly because Verizon has a tendency to hold up the process so long that there's plenty of time to leak an RUU, but it's been known to happen that they can sometimes move fast if the changes are minor from one version to the next.
The whole thing is more complicated than what I've explained here, but I think this might help you get a more complete picture of how it all comes together. Hope this helps.
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