Why actor components and not just actors?

Every time I want to traverse an actors construction, i.e. go from the top level actor to a child actor 1 or more levels down, I have to first get the actor component, get child, then CAST the child, then get actor component, then get child then cast the actor and on it goes. Why can I not simply skip the entire get child and casting part of it and make my code 60% smaller?

What benefits so I get from having actor components instead of the actors I want? It is such a pain to work with and I really can not see any reason for why that is even a thing unless there are engine related reasons.

This sort of applies to C++ as well, but mostly for blueprints.

Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to explain this.

Yours,
Magnus Elden