[rbehrends]

The main benefit of Bzr in this context is that it inherited Arch's concept of strictly linear, physically separate branches [1] rather than dealing with an arbitrary DAG.

This makes for a simpler mental model and also makes it simpler to keep separate things separate (it also has its downsides, but life is full of trade-offs). It also makes it easier to visualize the revision history and allows one to identify versions globally via branch + serial number rather than a hash.

It is rather unfortunate that Bzr development has stagnated and that DAG-based tools (Git and Mercurial) are the only major players left. Different workflows and organizational requirements benefit from different tools, and the Git/HG monoculture has started to worry me a bit.

[1] To be clear, Bzr has added co-located branches as an option since then on its own.