If you're using ifconfig on linux[1] for the last 10 years, I'm going to negatively look on your claimed expertise
As for point-to-point links, that's what simple link-local addresses are, added in ipv6. And why IP-IP is superior to OSPF, both because it doesn't hardcode address sizes and because it runs on Layer 2.
[1] ifconfig on other systems might be the right command
With properly constructed automation and modern* hardware, you don’t need to do any manual config on-box for automation to be reachable. Zero-Touch Provisioning is a wonder to behold.
Modern being relative. I saw this work on routers terminating telco circuits nearly 20 years ago and had servers netboot and install the OS with basic config before that (though automation was far more tedious back then)
Automation is all very well once the network link is up and working so you can reach the automation
But the reality is you put someone who knows what they're doing in front of a machine where the network connection isn't working, the first things they're going to be doing is ifconfig and ping 8.8.8.8 - which they'll be doing from memory, because you can't google anything when your network connection isn't working.
The fact that IPv6 will deprecate both ifconfig and 8.8.8.8 to me seems emblematic of why the adoption has been going so badly.