A key distinction I find a little hard to communicate is the difference between "just a list of things" to a "structured dataset".
Informal lists can be easy, but they tend to lack 1) structure and 2) governance - and because of this, these lists tend to get duplicated for many audiences, and thus 1) lose provenance 2) lack authority and 3) increase information glut or "noise".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller acknowledges how managed "Model" data can be projected in multiple "Views" based on varying user needs.