Hi, Great comments Joerg. I mostly agree with the points you are making.
Some additional comments inline.
This also follows the general idea that changes that are more global take precedence over changes that are more locale. Of course the current scheme is not very robust, as one missing link may cause bootstrap to fail. But other schemes have their weaknesses too. A simple inifile, specified by name as above, lacks in flexibilty. Just some thoughts from the configuration corner.