I think we got here because everyone's mixed up describing a state with describing the process to describe a state. Or, configuration versus scripts that apply

I think we got here because everyone's mixed up describing a state with describing the process to describe a state. Or, configuration versus scripts that apply configuration. Most of the popularly config-as-code systems mix the two up, including Ansible, my favorite one. You end up with "config files" that are, all at once in the same file: 1) configuration, 2) templates for configuration, and 3) programs that modify config when they're run. I think the whole approach is just fundamentally misguided. Each of these systems should probably use 2-3 different languages & formats, not just one. And especially not YAML. Ugh. So you're right, config files should not be code. Unfortunately, much of "modern" config management involves writing programs in config file formats, which is also extremely bad in a whole different way.