Are multiple `.gitignore`s frowned on?

Question

Unless a repo consisted of several independent projects, it seems it would be simplest to just have one .gitignore file at the root of the repo than various one

Answer 1

As a tangential note, one case where the ability to have multiple .gitignore files is very useful is if you want an extra directory in your working copy that you never intend to commit. Just put a 1-byte .gitignore (containing just a single asterisk) in that directory and it will never show up in git status etc.