Yeah, that can be a problem but one that is easily solved using the DeveloperSettings class built into the Engine. You don’t need an extra plugin. You can also mark them up as Config directly but that does lose the nice editing available in the Editor.
Because I felt it important to clarify the other paradigms that are just as core to UE as the Entity-Components. As I said, they’re just another tool in the UE architectural toolbox along with a number of other solutions both as part of the Engine (like subsystems) as well as those supported by C++ (like a system made up of purely functions in the functional programming style). And so components are not somehow more core of a paradigm than all the others.
Engineering discussions require precision which sometimes involves nitpicking. This has nothing to do with English as a first, second or twelfth language. One person’s use of component can make another assume UActorComponent. It’s not about correcting, but about building a shared understanding of the conversation going on so that either person one uses another word (because component has a larger UE connotation) or person two can move on with a new understanding because no UActorComponent types are involved anywhere in the discussion so there’s no confusion calling something else “component”.
And it’s a forum that will act as the foundation for those that come after us which means I think it’s important for there not to be properly nuanced advice in the posts (not that the internet is great at nuance). Invariably some other newbie comes around say “I’ve got a problem with this Actor setup X” that they’re only doing because they saw some advice like this that could be taken to imply everything thing they make should be an Actor. When really the solution to their problem is just a simple DataAsset. You might think that’s a hyperbolic and hypothetical case but I’ve had it happen plenty of times.
I don’t want to derail this thread any further since it’s sort of drifting from the original topic. Feel free to DM me if there’s anything to discuss further. Sorry if anything there (or here) felt like an attack, it was not intended as such.