I find it useful to have everything in a single buffer, it makes searching easier. Otherwise I'd have to start issuing 'grep' commands and worry about which file is which, and get clever about regular expressions when all I want is instant, friction-free access with a handful of keystrokes. Opening a file that big doesn't take long on modern hardware.

Honestly, there's not really anything to "maintain". Just a text file and some timestamps. No magic at all. Simple as dirt. That's the magic :-)