It seems that git is the new regex. People are actively building things around instead of learning the rules. I suppose that came from writing being easier than reading.
Having a version control system ( something that more people will use more often every day than regexes ) compared to them, is not a heartening thought.
The mathematical principles underneath are good, but the standard regex syntax is arcane and values brevity over readability, modifiability, etc.
I haven't studied enough of the Git plumbing to know what's going on underneath, but I suspect that the same thing is going on, where features are added without regard to other ones already present (feel free to correct me on this)