2013-07-18, 04:29
I'm going to go with "no, it would not be easier." 
Mostly I think it would be very difficult to figure out if a file has been edited by the user, and the way AS works it freshens the data every couple of weeks by downloading stuff again and re-caching it. So having a truly separate local override is a reasonable way (IMHO) to allow folks to have their own artist information without having to worry about it getting over written. Plus you can store it outside the XBMC addon_data area without having to do any strange path substitutions.
The value of the local artist folder is mostly for the scenario where you have some local artwork for an artist you want to be able to use but you don't want to (or can't) upload it to fanart.tv, theaudiodb.com or last.fm. I know fanart.tv takes only really high quality stuff (I'd say about a third of what I submit gets rejected), and theaudiodb.com only allows three images per artist.
From a historical perspective, the local art stuff was all added well after AS was mature and stable. So when I took over maintenance on AS it made sense to have the two directories kept separate so that AS could continue to run as it always had for the people who didn't really want any of the new fangled options. There is a configuration option that does get you one directory (use both local and remote images). In that case all the images are stored in the local location regardless of their source, but the .nfo files are still stored in the addon_data cache folder.
Mostly I think it would be very difficult to figure out if a file has been edited by the user, and the way AS works it freshens the data every couple of weeks by downloading stuff again and re-caching it. So having a truly separate local override is a reasonable way (IMHO) to allow folks to have their own artist information without having to worry about it getting over written. Plus you can store it outside the XBMC addon_data area without having to do any strange path substitutions.
The value of the local artist folder is mostly for the scenario where you have some local artwork for an artist you want to be able to use but you don't want to (or can't) upload it to fanart.tv, theaudiodb.com or last.fm. I know fanart.tv takes only really high quality stuff (I'd say about a third of what I submit gets rejected), and theaudiodb.com only allows three images per artist.
From a historical perspective, the local art stuff was all added well after AS was mature and stable. So when I took over maintenance on AS it made sense to have the two directories kept separate so that AS could continue to run as it always had for the people who didn't really want any of the new fangled options. There is a configuration option that does get you one directory (use both local and remote images). In that case all the images are stored in the local location regardless of their source, but the .nfo files are still stored in the addon_data cache folder.
