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KDE has a lot of rc files lying around in the ~/.config folder, like dolphinrc, katerc, kateschemarc, etc. etc.

Problem: This is clutter. It makes it hard to reinstall KDE on another distro while trying to keep the configurations you made in the GUI. It also makes it very difficult to find out where the config file for something is, as it usually doesn't say in the documentation.

Solution 1: Move config and rc files to appropriate folders, corresponding to the name of the program, according to the XDG Base Directory specifications. E.g.:
~/.config/dolphinrc ---> ~/.config/dolphin/dolphinrc
~/.config/karerc ---> ~/.config/kate/katerc
~/.config/kateschemarc ---> ~/.config/kate/kateschemarc
etc.
(I don't know if this would actually be the correct places, again because the folder is too cluttered for all this to make sense.)

Solution 2: Make it easier to know where the config and rc files are stored. This should be layed out in the documentation. In the GUI settings manager, there should always be a tip about where the settings are stored in the directory tree, either directly in the settings manager or in the help center which you come to when you click on "Help" in the settings manager.

I personally fail to see the need for this...
It is trivial to find an application's configuration or data files/folder by a simple "find" command, regardless of where it is located and how it is called exactly, as long as its name contains the application name.
The issue with a common strategy is: such strategies only work in strongly controlled environments(read Apple for example), where some authority can dictate things and everyone has to follow. That is not what we want. And without such central and absolute authority you will, per definition, always have exceptions. Also non-kde applications obviously would not be bound to such a directive.
All in all this would result in a pseudo standard that is followed by some applications, while others keep using other ideas. That in my experience makes it even harder to locate things.

Just because others put their configuration files on bad places in no excuse for KDE to do the same. Such a pseudo-standard, or not just that, but an actual standard, actually exists already. Please see the Arch wiki page for the XDG Base Directory, and notice how what I wrote already is the common strategy.

There is definitely a need, it's the kind of need that most people might not realize they needed. A clean directory structure would remove the need for all forum posts of the type "how can I make a clean start" or "how do I reconfigure my KDE on a new installation". It would be so simple, all it would take would be to find the directory with the program's name and move it over.

Another problem with the lose files today is all the files than I have no idea what are for, e.g. why do I have ~/.config/kgrammarc? The good thing about Linux is to have control over your system, and that is not achieved by not having control of the files. I don't like having stuff on my computer that I don't know what is for. If ~/.config/kgrammarc instead had a path according to the name of the program, like ~/.config/<name of program>/kgrammarc, I could just see the man page for <name of program> and find out.

Searching for files is really no alternative since you can never be sure what to search for. The files might "usually" contain the name of the program, but this doesn't seem to be the case for e.g. kgrammarc, and honestly, how do I know, if KDE doesn't follow any standard whatsoever? Also, just the fact that searching is even necessary is a good proof of the whole thing being a total mess.

I hope KDE has better answers to these issues than "just use Mac". That is not how we get mass Linux adaptation which I assume is what all of us want.

jonasfl wrote:Just because others put their configuration files on bad places in no excuse for KDE to do the same.

Why are other places suddenly "bad places"? Why do you think your idea is "good" and others ideas are "bad"?
Have you ever heard of "diversity" and why it exists and what it is a good idea?

jonasfl wrote:There is definitely a need, it's the kind of need that most people might not realize they needed.

Sounds more like _you_ see a need. And like _you_ want people to need this.

jonasfl wrote:Another problem with the lose files today is all the files than I have no idea what are for, e.g. why do I have ~/.config/kgrammarc? The good thing about Linux is to have control over your system, and that is not achieved by not having control of the files. I don't like having stuff on my computer that I don't know what is for. If ~/.config/kgrammarc instead had a path according to the name of the program, like ~/.config/<name of program>/kgrammarc, I could just see the man page for <name of program> and find out.

I think I already answered to this in my first comment. This might feel logical to _you_ but it is not necessarily the same for others. And definitely it will not work such that all applications stick with such pseudo standard. Whether you like that or not.

You need to understand that KDE (or better plasma, actually) is just one part of the environment you work with. It is in no position to dictate what application maintainers decide. This is not how Free Software works.

I’d say, sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t. If an application has a single configuration file, then this would not make sense at all. You’d just replace a config file with a directory containing a config file. But I’d say for applications and services that have multiple configuration files, it does make a lot of sense to put them into a common directory. I think it should be avoided to have configuration at multiple places, unless there is a good reason.
For example, Akonadi has 34 rc files in ~/.config/ and 30 additional files in ~/.config/akonadi. I’ve no idea why this is so, but backing up the configuration would be easier if everything was in ~/.config/akonadi.