What is a benefit of a model-driven approach for infrastructure automation?

In a model-driven approach, infrastructure models - such as YANG data models used with NETCONF or RESTCONF - serve as the single source of truth. All automation scripts and configurations are generated from this model, enforcing consistency and preventing out-of-band changes that would cause drift or introduce errors across the environment.

A model-driven approach typically has a steeper, not smaller, learning curve because administrators must learn the modeling language and associated toolchain in addition to the infrastructure being automated.

While incidental coding knowledge may be gained, the purpose of a model-driven approach is to abstract and enforce infrastructure definitions, not specifically to expand administrators' coding skills.

Understanding a declarative language to translate models into actions describes a characteristic of declarative IaC tools in general, and does not capture the defining benefit of the model-driven approach, which is enforcement of script generation through the model itself.