@babe gawd. You just triggered flashbacks...
https://lists.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2009-April/msg00240.html
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2011-January/msg00029.html
Think of the stupidest possible approach to anything, and that's the one they pick. That was also what introduced me to the bloat of glib and dbus. <shudder>