[dwarman]

My personal aphorism (for at least 20 years now):

Warman's Law: That which _can_ be configured _must_ be comfigured,

Corr.: Defaults Aren't.

Impl: running any program on its defaults will get you in trouble somewhere down the line. This is no different. Configurations are there precisely to accommodate each users' individual needs, and we are not all the same. Typically defaults try to achieve useability by naive users, and usually do so in a way that is wrong for the sophisticated users. As well as often not chosen very well and really wrong for everybody. Then there is code written by naive programmers who code the naive default and do not provide any configuration because they are unaware of any other way to use the system. And the other extreme of course - Windws anyone? Multiple places to configure different aspects of a specific vehavior, and selection dialogues that "help" by not showing sub-options not used by the current settings, making it impossible to know the full set?

At least the /etc paradigm lets us get a canonical view of everything, explorable with a simple text editor. This article actually shows the advantages.