"$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user-specific configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used."

https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-...

.config/ and .local/ are the de facto /etc for users, but there is the set of XDG_ environment variables that are intended to fill that role.

Well, my git, ssh, caches of what not, almost everything is in my home directory directly. It's even worse than "My Documents"

Git uses XDG_CONFIG_HOME https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Files - putting the config directly in your home is just a choice.

It doesn’t in macOS.

It’s not a choice. It’s the default. It’s like saying it’s a choice to run mongodb without authentication.

Lastly, why should I be using XDG Desktop variables on something that don’t haveA desktop environment?

„My Documents” isn’t the same as a home directory. Home directory in recent Windows versions is „C:\Users\CurrentUserName”. Or better: %homedrive%%homepath%.

I'm pretty sure .local is the per-user /usr, and .config is /etc

You’re both correct; a fair number of applications put their configuration in ~/.local/share even though that wasn’t the intent.