why is there a default /out network if we can drop ROP nodes practically anywhere? and why have a mat/shop/stage contexts when you only need one of those to drop a material library node?
I like the stage context + karma, and find them totally adequate. so are they going the phase out the other redundant contexts or am I missing out on some functionality here?

no

I recently discovered the magic of having your Houdini layout set up with multiple network views. I have a tab for /obj/, one for /mat/, one for /stage/ and one for /out/.

This way I can very quickly jump to whichever area I need by simply clicking a tab. And each tab remembers the state of that node tree view when I last left it. So please don't get rid of the network contexts.

It is something that is very inconsistent in Houdini (like no /dop, and some like /img, /tasks, ...need additional context manager within, ...), but I guess it has to stay for backward compatibility

It made more sense when / level was accessible, so maybe in the future / can be accessible again and in there user should be able to create any number of context networks of any type, that would allow users to work as they prefer

Since it's a bit weird to keep creating them in /obj (or of course anywhere else)