explain why it would be easier.
One call to one function as opposed to two calls to two different functions.
Please, I want a function for drawing a colored, lit ellipsoid.
It would be much easier to just give it the color and light position as parameter. It’s just one call to one function, instead of four calls to glMaterial, glScale, glLight and gluSphere 
Somehow it reminds me of glEnable(GL_GAME_DOOM3) 
Yea, when do we get that one?