How to model a database with many m:n relations on a table

Question

I am currently setting up a database which has a large number of many-to-many relations. Every relationship was modeled via a link table. Example:

A person has a num

Answer 1

Your simplified version does not represent a proper relational model. It's more of a metadata model.

The number of tables in your database should represent the number of logical entities in your domain. That should not change based on some arbitrary idea of how many entities is too many.