I didn't consider the historical context, which several people in this thread provided. I already knew that "/etc" used to literally mean "etcetera" - "whatever

I didn't consider the historical context, which several people in this thread provided. I already knew that "/etc" used to literally mean "etcetera" - "whatever doesn't fit elsewhere", but didn't immediately connect the dots that "/etc/glob" was still considered a fixed part of the system, and wasn't meant to be substituted by the administrator. I won't argue about PHP. I've dealt with it while there was money to be made from that, and moved on as soon as I had the chance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯