Automatic installation - is there an advantage?

[Colin Law]

On 22 March 2015 at 15:35, J <dreadpiratejeff at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> I agree with Liam... you really benefit from a separate home partition.
>
> 1:  You can encrypt it separately
> 2:  It's not tied to the root FS, so if/when you re-install,  you can
> reinstall your OS without fear of wiping your home directories
> ..
> The most important one is #2 though... it's so much easier, nicer and
> safer to do a full wipe and re-install if /home is on a separate
> partition.

Why is that easier, nicer and safer than having one partition for root
and home, and when re-installing just don't click the Format box for
the root partition, so that /home is left as is.

Certainly not easier, niceness is possibly in the eye of the beholder,
and why is it safer?

Colin