That's the Plan 9 way. The "everything is a file" model mostly relates to exposing all objects as file descriptors that support read and write operations--specifically the read and write syscalls. IOW, everything is a file means the universal API for all objects[1] is read and write. How you acquire the descriptor is a fuzzy area. Using open on virtual namespaces makes alot of sense, but not always, and in any event no incarnation of Unix, not even Linux, supports virtual namespaces as comprehensively and seamlessly as Plan 9.

[1] From a systems programming standpoint--kernel resources, IPC, etc. But there's an obvious relationship to, e.g., Smalltalk objects. (Just don't ask me what it is ;)