###case
If you have a lot of articles and do not want to build a menu item for every single one it is great to use the category item as it will automatically generate an article index with links to the article. Downside is it will not give you control over you template layout as it is a module and has no menu item ID to control. This can become an issue if you have different registrered user-types and or using different templates (all frontend).
###Result
The solution could be there when you would be able to add an menu ID to a category (so to say thru a category to the articles that are part of that category. As now is done on a one menu item id to one article basis.

###Expected conflict in current architecture
The suggested structure will conflict when an article from the same category is used individually on a(nother) menu item. To overcome this conflict probably an extra setting / option would be needed to turn the "category to id on / off".