What was making openHAB strong and the way to go for me, was that everything was visible in text files. There was nothing hidden somewhere in a binary configuration I was not able to see completely (but potentially overruling my textual definitions).
The only thing that was not so perfect (and still is with openHAB2) was the Designer. It was only partially able to codecomplete the XTEND syntax which was making some easy things unnecessary complicated for less technical users (type casting for instance).
In my first tests with openHAB2 I was faced with the disadvantage that those constellations could lead to. Was was using the Astro binding. First the new one, with limited functionality (right now). Later the 1.9 version with my old Item definitions. I was failing to make the Items work even if the binding was loaded and seems to work (cron for the next day was in the log etc.)
No matter what I did (removing the addon and re-add it etc). No chance. Sooner or later I just deleted the mapdb (and maybe some other stuff) re-added the 1.9 binding and I worked perfectly.
But there was no chance for me to understand why.
So from my point of view. Items, Things and Rules should remain Text only. And if there is an option to edit them via Paper UI it should change them there. Or if needed create a overrule file to show in text that there are modification done in the ui which are active or something…
Having two places in parallel where one might overrule the other but I do not see if and why is scaring me …