Structures (or “structs” in C) allow you to group several related variables and treat them as one unit. They are a mechanism for extending the type system of the C language by introducing user-defined ...

Programming C without variables is like, well, programming C without variables. They are so essential to the language that it doesn’t even require an analogy here. We can declare and use them as ...

I believe your alternative is exactly equivalent, so the reason they didn't do it that way is just that they preferred their way for whatever reason. Presumably they found it familiar and readable and ...