tbh I think the staging area (and popularizing local branches) may be git's greatest contribution. being able to selectively build a commit is a game-changer f

tbh I think the staging area (and popularizing local branches) may be git's greatest contribution. being able to selectively build a commit is a game-changer for creating understandable histories, and stopping local-tweak "leakage". distributed VCS is neat and all, but the vast, vast majority of cases have a canonical source-of-truth repo somewhere, and the rest are effectively just private mirrors. for those cases, distributed is mostly a significant source of complexity rather than capability. though it is significant to have an "escape hatch" when you need it.