I understand the argument against editing a file in /etc for something only one user is concerned about, but I've been the sole user of every computer I've had, so this doesn't matter to me. I think that's the case for a lot of people.
The other arguments seem to be preference. Some people work better with paper. Some people only want system configuration in /etc. If you're a stickler for the Single Responsibility Principle in the config files in your OS, then I assume you already have your own solution to this problem and you don't need a tutorial from me.
I don't follow your reasoning. The comments provide great advice on how to achieve the same and still not messy up your /etc.
You were introduced to the idea of todo's in your terminal, but then only accept the worst solution.
It is as if one guy says "Hey guys, I have found a way to not have to shit in the woods any more, we just have a bucket next to our bed and in the morning we throw it out the windows."
The second guy says "ok, lets not shit in the woods, but what if we create this thing called a sewage with a thing called 'toilet' on top so we don't have shit in the streets."
You say "Ok I see what you mean, what with having the shit in the streets and all, but some people work better with paper." Eh what?
Bad analogy. Treating your /etc/motd as a scratch space is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It's not the difference between shitting in a toilet and a hole in the ground.
The analogy is not that of `/etc/motd`, but about you rather accepting a crappy solution for a problem you didn't know about rather than a proposed better solution just because the crappy one came first.
Reading `man hier` tell us that /etc is for files local to the machine, userspace is somewhere else. If you don't care about man hier, that's your option, but this is the way Unix is designed.
The other arguments seem to be preference. Some people work better with paper. Some people only want system configuration in /etc. If you're a stickler for the Single Responsibility Principle in the config files in your OS, then I assume you already have your own solution to this problem and you don't need a tutorial from me.