Background
Drupal 7 and previous versions have attracted criticism for Drupal web site admin configuration being stored in the MySQL database, the criticism being that being in a database means that it cannot be directly managed in git together with the PHP code based development for a Drupal site (custom modules, themes etc.).
Secondly with configuration being in the database along with content, transporting configuration between development, test, staging and live servers as part of development activity is complicated, though Features module (and related) can help.
Reading through: https://www.drupal.org/documentation/administer/config
...I'm getting the impression that, in Drupal 8, the database is still used to store the config, when for example a site builder creates a new content type, rather than this being written to a .yaml file which is used directly.
So actually it seems that the role of the yaml file(s) is a much more purer (than Features) vehicle for the configuration. Whereas with Features it was PHP code which was harder to read what the configuration was, including if doing diffs between commits where config had been updated resulting in a new version of the Features-based config export. By that I mean not that PHP itself is hard to read, as I'm familiar enough with it, having written custom modules, hooks, themes. What I mean is that to express a configuration in PHP is perhaps not the most legible way to do it. So I can see the rationale of using yaml. The difference is that yaml will be read by a parser to apply a config. The complexity of applying the config is in the parser, which most folks need not concern themselves with most of the time, so the yaml can more cleanly describe the config. whereas in Features, there is no parser / yaml (or other script) separation. The descripton of the config and the means to apply it are necessarily in the same place as PHP code which is executed directly, so it's bound to be a bit harder to read the config, particularly if doing git commit diffs.
So there's the rationale for yaml, a Declarative Programming approach to storing configuration management in Git, contrasted with Features which is an Imperative Programming approach. And next what I need to know is this the case that Drupal 8 does still store config in the database does still and yaml files are the means for transporting config (replacing what Features did in D7 and before)?
(By the way I am a big fan of Drupal and spend most of my time at work, working with it for the sites that my organisation produces and maintained and am also involved in the community. So this question is not a stealth campaign against Drupal in favour of other platforms. It is a genuine question to try to dispel the apparent mystique around Drupal 8 and the new config management system)
Update @Berdir's answer (accepted) is a great definitive summary as to the state of Drupal 8 regarding configuration management.
I recently discovered that using yaml for config in Drupal 8 is a concept that has been developed for Drupal 7 with the Patterns module, also read a FAQ on it which includes comparing features.
Update
Change default active config from file storage to DB storage Is a definitive answer about making config active from DB storage, which corroborates with @Berdir's answer.