WAY more reliable than count which would do screwy things like rename a bunch of stuff and delete the last item if you removed an item from the middle of a list.

Complex architectures and reusable module encapsulation require a bit more complexity than HCL1 was capable of describing IMO (and apparently the O of most of the Internet). That doesn't necessarily make it less reliable.

Could I describe my infrastructure "reliably" just using raw resources with no loops? Sure but that sounds like a nightmare to both build and maintain.