[silok]

I think it looks pretty promising, as long as the deployment setup is not only configurable via the UI, but also can be specified decoratively with code and hierarchical data (eg json).

IaC is a really powerful concept, and system initiative does not need to be in conflict with that paradigm, just another layer of abstraction that still allows IaC.

The main issue is how to combining UI state + and manual state.

The worst thing you can do imo, is to use a common representation, eg the UI would try and edit your manually written declarations. That is just a recipe for disaster.

The answer to this type of mixed editing is a layer approach, eg what is being done in the USD format (https://openusd.org/release/index.html)

Each authoring "instance" has full control of its layer, and composition semantics define how the layers compose to the final declarative structure.