Why aren't .NET “application settings” stored in the registry?

Question

Some time back in the nineties, Microsoft introduced the Windows Registry. Applications could store settings in different hives. There were hives for application-wide and us

Answer 1

instead of simply using the registry

The registry is NOT simple. On my PC, it's a 40MB binary mess, and I hope the bits inside it don't change their mind.

Isn't this exactly what the registry was intended for?

Yes. But then again, DLLs were intended to provide shared functionality to different applications.