[pls2halp]

If you were new to modern macOS(and iOS with the Files app) you might end up with something similar. Applications dump things in the main Documents folder(with user chosen names, but those are necessary metadata). You can then tag items with various labels(essentially adding more metadata), and everything is searchable through spotlight of the search function of our file manager using the user-given name, tags, and metadata(documents edited today, Pages files).

Photos and videos are managed entirely in the photos app, and organised almost exactly according to your suggested categories(literally called memories (for events), places, people). iTunes handles audio files automatically(you can sync your own files into apple music, where they're categorised in the same way as any other music).

As I understand it, APFS also handles copying and modifying in a similar way to your description, where a copy of a file is treated as a mutation of the previous version.

Everything is even synced through iCloud to all your devices, with all macOS devices keeping a rather complete copy, unless they run out of disk space.

This would require someone to have their first experience of computing in the modern Apple ecosystem(literally iOS 11 and up) to avoid preconceptions about filesystems, since traditional folders are still supported, but it's possible.