[hyperupcall]

Hmm, that's why I said inherent? Because as you mentioned there is a separate macOS directory structure and the system utilities don't follow the specification. Also, the specification is only written for Linux in mind, which is why I said "not inherent for macOS.

Is there an exact phrasing you would prefer?

[alwillis]

The short explanation is native GUI apps that use the macOS frameworks use the classic macOS directory structure.

The classic Unix utilities and apps typically use $HOME on macOS, while their modern, often Rust-based replacements—WezTerm, Exa, fd, broot, Fish, etc.—use XDG.

Vim uses ~/.vimrc while Neovim uses XDG.

[hyperupcall]

I asked for an exact phrasing, not for an explanation, because I have already written exactly that under the "Should I do this on macOS?" heading...