So, somebody imagined/wished that all distros will switch to /usr/* and them will ship / part ? :> I don't think so. Totally wrong direction.

And init binary in /usr is complete braindeadness...

Also MS behind anything means they are trying to get rid of your options, eg by complicating things into "enterprise level" and keep pushing windows as userware.

But there is other possibility: minimal root that is easy to manage, switch, etc. etc. and rest of the system :)