If a user requests "/foo/bar/baz" you have to allow your webserver to stat "/foo/bar/baz/.htaccess", "/foo/bar/.htaccess", and "/foo/.htaccess" which can be a significant performance hit.
SSIs have similar issues, parsing all files on the off-chance there is some magic that will be required.
If a user requests "/foo/bar/baz" you have to allow your webserver to stat "/foo/bar/baz/.htaccess", "/foo/bar/.htaccess", and "/foo/.htaccess" which can be a significant performance hit.
SSIs have similar issues, parsing all files on the off-chance there is some magic that will be required.