> If your 2d array sits on the stack, then inferring memory layout is pretty easy. If you are dealing with pointer that was passed to a function, then you can't assume anything about data size or limits, which is why many functions that take pointers take a size parameter as well.

Right, but 2d arrays come into this picture with their own quirks again. You're not just passing the size as the parameter, you can pass it as a "special" parameter that influences how the compiler will interpret other parameters. E.g. in C99 you can do this:

    void do(size_t x, size_t y, int a[][y]);

Here "y" plays the critical role because it will be used to compute offsets in the a[i][j] expression. For 1d arrays this doesn't happen.

Of course it's still generalizable as "all but the outermost dimensions should be known" and for 1d array the outermost dimension is the only dimension. Still, this whole thing always felt a bit odd to me.