@mirabilos
There are other config management systems that don't require YAML. The ability to be able to say, with actual proof, that all hosts in your configuration are configured the exact same way is not to be underestimated though.
@ohmrun

@mirabilos
It can, but this depends on the implementation details of your config management configuration, rather than the tool which you use for your config management.

e.g., I once wrote an Ansible playbook that fetched the list of all installed packages and purged those not explicitly whitelisted, then installed the packages that were in the whitelist. That made it possible to assert that all hosts had the exact same list of packages installed.
@ohmrun