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Simply put, the WordPress template hierarchy reserves
home.php
for the homepage, but if you set a Front Page post, it will display that instead. If WordPress core developers reserved it for the homepage, I do not believe it would cause issues with any servers, because they would be putting everyone at risk. Hope that explains it for you. 🙂 -
It is completely personal preference.
From the WP Codex:
- WordPress first determines whether it has a static front page. If a
static front page has been set, then WordPress loads that page
according to the page template hierarchy. - If a static front page has not been set, then WordPress looks for a
template file called home.php and uses it to generate the requested
page. - If home.php is missing, WordPress looks for a file called index.php
in the active theme’s directory, and uses that template to generate
the page.
See the relevant WordPress Codex page for more information:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy