Opening the /Applications folder from Finder I can see it contains the ootb Apple app TextEdit.app.

Yet running ls -alh /Applications from a terminal does not list the TextEdit.app.

Dragging TextEdit.app from Finder into the terminal inserts a path of /System/Applications/TextEdit.app (on MacOS Ventura 13.0.1).

Question: Is /Applications a regular folder like any other or is it some kind of werewolf overlay of multiple folders which only appears to be a regular folder? How is this called and where is it documented?

_{I discovered this behavior after noticing that some ootb Apple apps stopped appearing in the Spotlight search, and then tracked it down to having added /System under Settings > Siri & Spotlight > Spotlight Privacy > [excluded folders]. I assumed it makes no sense to include the entire /System folder into spotlight indexing yet this appears to have this kind of side effects.}

Opening the /Applications folder from Finder I can see it contains the ootb Apple app TextEdit.app.

Yet running ls -alh /Applications from a terminal does not list the TextEdit.app.

Dragging TextEdit.app from Finder into the terminal inserts a path of /System/Applications/TextEdit.app (on MacOS Ventura 13.0.1).

Question: Is /Applications a regular folder like any other or is it some kind of overlay of multiple folders which only appears to be a regular folder? How is this called and where is it documented?

_{I discovered this behavior after noticing that some ootb Apple apps stopped appearing in the Spotlight search, and then tracked it down to having added /System under Settings > Siri & Spotlight > Spotlight Privacy > [excluded folders]. I assumed it makes no sense to include the entire /System folder into spotlight indexing yet this appears to have this kind of side effects.}