I like your idea of feature branches, but people do need to know the data model and how to manage their history. They will inevitably be out of sync and clumsil

I like your idea of feature branches, but people do need to know the data model and how to manage their history. They will inevitably be out of sync and clumsily tring to get merge all day to get their files in sync. Keeping the history clean is more important than just syncing files.