Even better would be if we would stop duplicating these files in each application...

Let me remind you that there is a reason for that.
We have accepted some TTs to only provide frontend packs and limit backend to the plugins used in frontend therefore why lib.joomla.ini is first loaded from frontend.
We can change the rules though in 4.0, no problem.

well we need to stop doing that as it is false advertising to say Joomla is available in their language and then for them to discover it isnt

I am sure you can do better. ROTFLOL.
All would be so much better if you were doing all by yourself.
Thanks for your encouragement to the volunteers who provide (or provided) some languages but can't do all as they are a one woman/man team (and, no, it is not because we have a few obsolete strings that they can't do all). Better than nothing, imho.

Locking this as it goes nowhere. Thanks for comments.

but can't do all as they are a one woman/man team

Hmm, if only there were a community resource where anyone willing and capable could contribute instead of all translators being ushered into a private area that only invited guests (which does not include the project's leadership team, still) are welcome into. Then said one person team would really only need to do a quick review, package things up, and publish them. #wishful-thinking #i-really-should-stop-living-in-a-dream-world

It is harder to contribute to translations than it is to join the mafia. It's the only closed area of Joomla and after twelve years of issues we need to stop this closed shop and welcome contributing