the ao in the diffuse is there because the realtime lighting in a game engine can't simulate less light hitting crevices, so why would specular highlights not be subject to the same compensation for the lack of "correct" lighting? at least thats my reasoning for including it in my specular maps.. tweaked to look good of…
Generally I won't put the straight AO map in specular, but since I get the Specular from a tweaked Diffuse, I guess it is somehow included. Anyway, I'd use the AO in Specular only to represent a globally shiny object with heavy dust in junctions (where AO goes dark) like something exposed to a sandy ambient (or other low…