Comment by wruza

Templating doesn't write in the middle. Writing in the middle is a medieval rudiment of manual configuration helpers. Automated config generation simply outputs a new file every time you run "build" and then somehow syncs it to the target server. All "user" changes go into templates, not outputs. What you're talking about can exist, but it is a mutable hell that is not reproducible and thus cannot be a part of a reliable infrastructure.

If this is not how modern devops/fleet management works, I withdraw my questions cause it's even less useful than my scripts.