[wvenable]

I agree that's the advantage of text formats. Just as that's the advantage of text networking protocols over binary protocols (you can read them with wireshark or even use telnet).

But you have to weigh that advantage over other advantages. If it was this simple, every database (and we are talking about a database here) would just be text to make recovery easier.

[wallyhs]

I agree that you have to weigh the advantages, but we are talking about a special type of database. Most configuration data is read-only during normal operation. It's not as if anyone stores customer data in /etc or the Windows registry.