But it’s a perfectly functional and sensible solution for storing system configurations.

No. It was not. The concept was OK, but the execution was not. Even Microsoft didn’t know what was in there. The design was horrific. They could have used keywords, they could have had a data dictionary, they could have standardized it. They could have made it not get corrupted by glancing at it.

But they didn’t, at least not for a long time. And it still sucks, just a little less.