The arguments here between "file hierarchy" versus the "library/drawer/shoebox" styles of organization highlight a fundamental failing of traditional filesystems:
The need to store certain content under multiple horizontal categories (or folders.)
For example I will add the same song to multiple playlists, for different moods and activities, or a photo may have multiple elements that I might search for (e.g. "nature", "warm", "urban" etc.)
Symlinks/Aliases are too cumbersome. Tags help alleviate this a little, but they're still a tacked-on layer instead of a core FS feature in modern OSes (even macOS has inconsistent UI support for tags and becomes unwieldy if you have hundreds of tags.)
Of course. "Playlists" are a layer over the filesystem to make up for deficiencies of a traditional filesystem.
Playlist-like organization is useful for a lot of other types of content besides music, so why not bring those features back into the filesystem layer?
The need to store certain content under multiple horizontal categories (or folders.)
For example I will add the same song to multiple playlists, for different moods and activities, or a photo may have multiple elements that I might search for (e.g. "nature", "warm", "urban" etc.)
Symlinks/Aliases are too cumbersome. Tags help alleviate this a little, but they're still a tacked-on layer instead of a core FS feature in modern OSes (even macOS has inconsistent UI support for tags and becomes unwieldy if you have hundreds of tags.)