Why does NavigationView have to be a top-level view? - ios

Question

I am new to iOS and SwiftUI - why does NavigationView even exist? Why isn't there just NavigationLinks whenever we need to link somewhere?
And why does NavigationView have to be the top level view? Semantically it just doesn't make sense as the top level View should be VStack, Zstack etc
Currently:
struct ContentView : View {
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
VStack {
Text("Hello World")
NavigationLink(destination: DetailView()) {
Text("Do Something")
}
}
}
}
}
Should be:
struct ContentView : View {
var body: some View {
VStack {
Text("Hello World")
NavigationView {
NavigationLink(destination: DetailView()) {
Text("Do Something")
}
}
}
}
}
Any idea?

Answer 1

SwiftUI gives you a whole bunch of conveniences practically for free.
One of those is an interface building block called NavigationView.
That interface building block has some convenient features and abilities, such as giving you automatic navigation interface (like back buttons to the original View in the navigation bar of the view you followed via a NavigationLink, etc).
Most of those conveniences simply wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t the top level of your view.
Is there something you wanted from NavigationView at a lower level? I can’t imagine what, but I suspect there’s another SwiftUI building block that will achieve it, made specifically for the context.