The appearance that commits are diffs is realistic enough though. The question was why branches (and tags, and other refs) as pointers is unnatural, and I seco

The appearance that commits are diffs is realistic enough though. The question was why branches (and tags, and other refs) as pointers is unnatural, and I second the question because for me it's quite natural, while Mercurial style branches feel quite restrictive (and I never internalized their rules).