Why Is Sp_addumpdevice Database Specific?

Seems like the current way sp_addumpdevice works it is database specific i.e. you need to specify a database backup filename ending in .bak

What I would like to do is to declare a dump device just ONCE and then reuse this definition when I run the backup database command for different databases.
For example I have a single network folder where I want to store all my backups for a particular Sql Server instance; which I would like to setup like this :


EXEC sp_addumpdevice 'disk', 'dev_edrive','\199.xxx.xxx.xxxe$dbbaks'


Of course the backup database syntax requires that the disk device end with a filename.bak - so this shall not work in reality.

I am not sure how tape backups work, but they donot seem to need a filename to be specified i.e. the BOL example just declares it as \. ape0'

I am posting this more as a discussion question to see if others feel the same way I do.