You are correct, from a user's perspective this seems like unnecessary complexity. But here on the system administration side of Chesterton's fence, these split

You are correct, from a user's perspective this seems like unnecessary complexity. But here on the system administration side of Chesterton's fence, these splits enable more secure, more robust and more reliable systems. Among others, this allows for improved backup and recovery, better storage efficiency, easier application of security patches and providing centralized configuration.