The reason why Unity even has .meta files is because Unity does not convert assets to internal format during import (well, it technically does, but it is hidden away from you). So, if you put *.tga into project content/asset it’ll stay as *.tga. Because *.tga can’t have extra metadata, the metadata is stored in *.meta file which placed near original file.
Since UE4 has everything in *.uasset form, guid for the file could be placed inside the asset. Meaning no *.meta files.
You’re repeating what I said using different words. Redirectors exist for historical reason as a quick and dirty workaround around limitation of path-based system.
However, path-based system doesn’t bring any benefit to begin with, and should obviously be replaced with something that doesn’t break and doesn’t need redirectors.
I advise to get rid of that habit, and listen instead. There’s no point in getting wound up. Both engines have superior features that aren’t present in another one, and both have weak points. When people say “it is broken” they are trying to improve your favorite software tool, so when you argue with them, you oppose adding new improvements to your favorite engine.
That doesn’t make much sense, don’t you think?
By the way, at the moment really weak points of UE4 is asset management handling - the one that is discussed in this thread, and animation retargeting mechanism (although animation system itself is better).