If you know what a dotfile is, it’s there for the same reason. (Dotfiles are per-user system configuration options written as a file in the user’s home directo

If you know what a dotfile is, it’s there for the same reason. (Dotfiles are per-user system configuration options written as a file in the user’s home directory. This means that for any system on which that home directory exists, that user’s configuration options will be applied. If the home directory is shared across multiple computers over a network, or if it is backed up from one computer and restored to another, then that user’s settings will persist.) If these settings were stored in some other central database then if you copied the macOS folder from one computer to another, your copy tool would have to know how copy the settings as well. Keeping those settings inside the folder itself means that your copy tool only needs to know about copying folders, instead of copying folders and also copying settings. It’s one of those Unix principles where everything is treated as a file: an elegant technique for a more civilized age.