.files are very useful. I like the consistent idiom for where your "global" settings go for virtualenv, npm, tslint, flake8, git, whatever.

But it would have been so nice just to move it into a ~/cfgs or fine... even a ~/.cfgs or whatever.

I'm guessing engineers went, "ewww, I'd have to walk down the tree to find the next most relevant config file to use and then go UP into a directory when I hit home."