Great break down and brain dump. I dont disagree with your mindset of it.
However, looking back - YAST was a big selling point to end-users and administrators using OpenSUSE.
The ability to run yast TUI menu system to make configuration changes from a single place. Think of it a an entry point and created a large support base due to said feature. Made this distro stand out from others at the time.
I just feel we dont need another web based management tool [Cockpit base].
Ofcourse, in larger infra and enterprise environments where you have a large fleet of Linux hosts. There is a need for a single pane of glass for the overall management and orchestration. IE: That’s what Spacewalk, now SUSE Manager was/is.