Configuration files are code files. It's just that the code is at a much higher level of abstraction, and, usually, domain-specific. Now, what would be the cos

Configuration files are code files. It's just that the code is at a much higher level of abstraction, and, usually, domain-specific. Now, what would be the cost of maintaining a domain-specific compiler and its tooling on top of the configuration files? That's true for most abstractions, btw. When you abstract something, you now need to maintain both the abstraction and the code using the abstraction.