>Does it help the pedagogy and understanding? Does it help form equations that match the form of other equations in some mathematically-meaningful way? Absolut

>Does it help the pedagogy and understanding? Does it help form equations that match the form of other equations in some mathematically-meaningful way? Absolutely! In 3D systems. Particularly using spherical coordinates. It's ironic you chose Maxwell's Equations as your example because Sigma would get rid of those pesky factors of 4pi appearing in them when written in Gaussian units! Besides, Maxwell's Equations are really best represented as just one equation when expressed in covariant form.