\context foo = "bar" vs. \new foo

[Graham Percival]

Why do we have \context and \new ?  I know that \context lets you name 
a context and \new doesn't... but is that the only difference?  ... 
actually, you can use \context to do fancy stuff with already-existing 
contexts, right?

Could we change \new so that it can also name a new context?  I'm 
looking at the vocal templates, having:
\score {
  \new Staff { \violinmelody }
  \context Staff =singer {
    \context Voice = vocal { \blah }
  \new PianoStaff {...}
}

The alternating \new and \context seems confusing.  It would be nice if 
we could do
  \new Staff { \violinmelody }
  \new Staff = singer {
    \new Voice = vocal { \blah }
  \new PianoStaff {...}

Cheers,
- Graham