<group material="#material_opaque">
<mesh src="#mySimpleMesh">
<float name="opacity">0.1</float>
</mesh>
</group>
If #material_opaque was not marked as transparent before (opacity = 1) then the opacity override will be applied during rendering but the object won't be put into the transparent objects queue. As a result it's rendered without blending enabled.
Overriding the opacity value of an object that was already transparent (ie opacity = 0.5) works as expected.