The log level parameter in smb.conf should normally not be set higher than 2 because:

While high log levels can reveal more information about operations, `smb.conf` log levels generally do not directly log raw user credentials; security concerns are typically managed through authentication mechanisms.

Increased verbosity primarily impacts server disk I/O and CPU usage for processing and writing logs, not network bandwidth.

While higher log levels produce detailed output that might be harder to parse, the primary reason against high log levels for normal operation is performance, not administrator comprehension.

When the `log level` in `smb.conf` is set to a high value (e.g., above 2), Samba generates a very large amount of verbose debugging information. This increased logging can cause the server to perform frequent disk write operations and potentially flush log files after each operation, leading to a substantial performance overhead and negatively impacting the server's overall responsiveness and resource utilization.