there are a few places where data is unfortunately inconsistent. Specifically, we're sometimes returning semver version with a "v" while other times we're not. You can see where this bubbles up in the ranges tests. Ideally, this will be solved in core as well, though I'm not yet sure if it's actually an issue there.
Regardless, anywhere we return a semver version we should start it with a "v" for the sake of consistency.