Well, I tried adding it to all before_widget and the error message persisted.
Some variations I tried:
//register the default sidebar
register_sidebar(array(
'name'=> TD_THEME_NAME . ' default',
'id' => 'td-default', //the id is used by the importer
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s"><aside class="widget %2$s">',
'after_widget' => '</aside></div>',
'before_title' => '<div class="block-title"><span>',
'after_title' => '</span></div>'
));
'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
'after_widget' => '</aside>',
register_sidebar(array(
'name'=>'Top right (social)',
'id' => 'td-top-right',
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => '',
'after_title' => '',
));
The second variation excludes the error message but the widget becomes completely blank.