The role of the TDS is to stabilize the organization of TeX-related software packages that are installed and in use, possibly on multiple platforms simultaneously.
At first glance, it may seem that the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) archives fulfill at least part of this role, but this is not the case. The role of CTAN is to simplify archiving and distribution, not installation and use.
In fact, the roles of the TDS and CTAN are frequently in conflict, as you will see elsewhere in this document. For distribution, many different types of files must be combined into a single unit; for use, it is traditional to segregate files (even similar files) from a single package into separate, occasionally distant, directories.
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