All those filter_{variable}_hooks provide a neat abstraction if you’re building an extensible product.

WordPress does this all the time. You can do this too and it’s a great thing to do if you’re building a product with a base/addons model.

Here’s an example of how you can build a small abstraction that allows you to filter every individual call you make to one of your settings. (This assumes you’re storing options as a serialized array).

If you provide support for your product, I guarantee you’ll use that variable hook eventually.