A reason to have Projects segregated from Areas relates to the Pareto Principle. It’s to separate the activities which generate an outcome, from the activities which don’t.
While both require action, it does not facilitate the prioritisation of action. Unless a status or “rank” is added to facilitate this function, it, however, begs the question “Why separate the two forms of activities? When they are both related?”. If a Project is nested inside of an Area, the only distinction factor is whether the activity has a deadline or not. It would be more advantageous to consolidate the two and then define an activity by its intensity;
By ‘active efforts and projects which are being worked on’, By ‘ongoing activities’, and By ‘back of mind activities’. Viewing activities through a lens of intensity would allow for a better estimation of current effort, and more effective prioritisation and adjustment of one bandwidth.