Use "git" for revision control.. Copying text files into multiple locations is a bad idea. You lose track of what's going on, and the server will usually load ALL files in a directory. Use "git". Manually copying files is very much not recommended.
I agree; git for backup and revision control is on my to do list for our quite new freeradius installation. Still takes some time to setup things up correctly.
The server tracks each request separately. If you want custom variables for a request, then you put the custom variable into the request. Not into the module configuration. You already know how to create custom attributes in the local dictionary, and then set them in a policy. Why not do the same thing here for "network"? Why invent another approach?
Good hint, did not think of this approach.