Comparing XML to *.properties files:
In my very first
J2EE project, back in 2001, we used BEA WebLogic version 5.1. You had to configure it in one giant *.properties file. That was a big mess. In WebLogic 6.0, the configuration was done in XML, which was much more clear.
A *.properties file is just a flat list of key-value pairs. XML has hierarchical tree structure, so that you can organise things in a much better way.