I haven't mentioned an Ansible Master? I referred to the user running ansible as the controller.
Running local configuration and checking out local state can indeed be very different from having a master. Like I said, master features often include features such as search and service discovery. Checking out state from version control does not have those features therefore the user implements those features on his own with stateless cookbooks/pillars/modules/whatever. The remote checkout is not a SPOF and a master is.
You are right in regard to the open ports, it is uncommon, though I have seen it with workstations. I edited the post!
Running local configuration and checking out local state can indeed be very different from having a master. Like I said, master features often include features such as search and service discovery. Checking out state from version control does not have those features therefore the user implements those features on his own with stateless cookbooks/pillars/modules/whatever. The remote checkout is not a SPOF and a master is.
You are right in regard to the open ports, it is uncommon, though I have seen it with workstations. I edited the post!