One thing about load average on Linux which I never really understood was the inclusion of processes waiting for I/O, I never really got a satisfying explantation until I bumped into this post a few years ago: https://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2017-08-08/linux-load-aver...

Tangentially related: modern kernels have a much better metric (PSI, or pressure stall information)

https://lwn.net/Articles/759781/

https://lwn.net/Articles/775971/

Well, that's still an aggregated value that someone decided to calculate based on what they thought would work best for what they're looking for. It's not necessarily more a correct definition of load, just one that is more appropriately actionable for the problems it's designed for.

In other words, PSI is "better" for some definition of "better".

The traffic analogy is a good explanation. Here you go: https://scoutapm.com/blog/understanding-load-averages

“Examining Load Average” by Ray Walker:

https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9001