It is documentation. This week, I looked at the Laravel API docs[0], just as much as I looked at the framework guide[1]. It all depends on the question you have and the answer you need.

It's like the car manual (Do they still ship with one?) where every detail is laid out. It's not important for daily driving, but when you to fix an electrical problem, that's the reference you need.

[0]: https://api.laravel.com/docs/13.x/index.html

[2]: https://laravel.com/docs/13.x

It is documentation, but unless someone writes it, there's nothing "meaty" there explaining why certain choices were made, which APIs which will be deprecated, the overall design, where new things should go depending on what they do etc etc.