Re: "a tool Microsoft uses to hide its source code from being copied"
There are some good concepts with the registry but I can't help but find it a bloated mess that's grown fairly organically since Windows 95. It's far from logical, especially when things are buried under layers of obscure UUIDs.
"Ability to push changes to users or machines on a per-value basis without worrying about changing other values by overwriting an entire file, or having to deal with merging changes to an existing file."
Like configuration directories, often found in Debian and its derivatives? These are such a breeze to work with. Text files are particularly brilliant if things go wrong as they don't have to be mounted in order to check them - there's a lot to be said for simplicity sometimes.
"User/machine setting separation, with the user settings able to move with the user between machines as a single, trivially synchronised file."
While not a single file, 'ix home directories do this reasonably well. In most cases I've found it creates much less headache than in Windows (e.g. restoring personal data and configuration on a reinstalled machine), but both are far from perfect. Sure sounds good in theory though!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
