diff --git a/.htaccess b/.htaccess
index 0976705609ad3..db4f32a1fbb4a 100644
--- a/.htaccess
+++ b/.htaccess
@@ -1,100 +1,178 @@
 <IfModule mod_headers.c>
-  <IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
-    <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
-       SetEnvIfNoCase ^Authorization$ "(.+)" XAUTHORIZATION=$1
-       RequestHeader set XAuthorization %{XAUTHORIZATION}e env=XAUTHORIZATION
+    <IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
+        <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
+            SetEnvIfNoCase ^Authorization$ "(.+)" XAUTHORIZATION=$1
+            RequestHeader set XAuthorization %{XAUTHORIZATION}e env=XAUTHORIZATION
+        </IfModule>
+        <IfModule mod_proxy_fcgi.c>
+            SetEnvIfNoCase Authorization "(.+)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1
+        </IfModule>
+        <IfModule mod_lsapi.c>
+            SetEnvIfNoCase ^Authorization$ "(.+)" XAUTHORIZATION=$1
+            RequestHeader set XAuthorization %{XAUTHORIZATION}e env=XAUTHORIZATION
+        </IfModule>
     </IfModule>
-    <IfModule mod_proxy_fcgi.c>
-       SetEnvIfNoCase Authorization "(.+)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1
-    </IfModule>
-    <IfModule mod_lsapi.c>
-      SetEnvIfNoCase ^Authorization$ "(.+)" XAUTHORIZATION=$1
-      RequestHeader set XAuthorization %{XAUTHORIZATION}e env=XAUTHORIZATION
+
+    <IfModule mod_env.c>
+        # Add security and privacy related headers
+        # Avoid doubled headers by unsetting headers in "onsuccess" table,
+        # then add headers to "always" table: https://github.com/nextcloud/server/pull/19002
+
+        <If "%{REQUEST_URI} =~ m#/login$#">
+            # Only on the login page we need any Origin or Referer header set.
+            Header onsuccess unset Referrer-Policy
+            Header always set Referrer-Policy "same-origin"
+        </If>
+        <Else>
+            Header onsuccess unset Referrer-Policy
+            Header always set Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
+        </Else>
+
+        Header onsuccess unset X-Content-Type-Options
+        Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
+
+        Header onsuccess unset X-Frame-Options
+        Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
+
+        Header onsuccess unset X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies
+        Header always set X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies "none"
+
+        Header onsuccess unset X-Robots-Tag
+        Header always set X-Robots-Tag "noindex, nofollow"
+
+        SetEnv modHeadersAvailable true
     </IfModule>
-  </IfModule>
-
-  <IfModule mod_env.c>
-    # Add security and privacy related headers
-    # Avoid doubled headers by unsetting headers in "onsuccess" table,
-    # then add headers to "always" table: https://github.com/nextcloud/server/pull/19002
-
-    <If "%{REQUEST_URI} =~ m#/login$#">
-      # Only on the login page we need any Origin or Referer header set.
-      Header onsuccess unset Referrer-Policy
-      Header always set Referrer-Policy "same-origin"
-    </If>
-    <Else>
-      Header onsuccess unset Referrer-Policy
-      Header always set Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
-    </Else>
-
-    Header onsuccess unset X-Content-Type-Options
-    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
-
-    Header onsuccess unset X-Frame-Options
-    Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
-
-    Header onsuccess unset X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies
-    Header always set X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies "none"
-
-    Header onsuccess unset X-Robots-Tag
-    Header always set X-Robots-Tag "noindex, nofollow"
-
-    SetEnv modHeadersAvailable true
-  </IfModule>
-
-  # Add cache control for static resources
-  <FilesMatch "\.(css|js|mjs|svg|gif|png|jpg|webp|ico|wasm|tflite)$">
-    <If "%{QUERY_STRING} =~ /(^|&)v=/">
-      Header set Cache-Control "max-age=15778463, immutable"
-    </If>
-    <Else>
-      Header set Cache-Control "max-age=15778463"
-    </Else>
-  </FilesMatch>
-
-  # Let browsers cache OTF and WOFF files for a week
-  <FilesMatch "\.(otf|woff2?)$">
-    Header set Cache-Control "max-age=604800"
-  </FilesMatch>
+
+    # Add cache control for static resources
+    <FilesMatch "\.(css|js|mjs|svg|gif|png|jpg|webp|ico|wasm|tflite)$">
+        <If "%{QUERY_STRING} =~ /(^|&)v=/">
+            Header set Cache-Control "max-age=15778463, immutable"
+        </If>
+        <Else>
+            Header set Cache-Control "max-age=15778463"
+        </Else>
+    </FilesMatch>
+
+    # Let browsers cache OTF and WOFF files for a week
+    <FilesMatch "\.(otf|woff2?)$">
+        Header set Cache-Control "max-age=604800"
+    </FilesMatch>
 </IfModule>
 
 <IfModule mod_php.c>
-  php_value default_charset 'UTF-8'
-  php_value output_buffering 0
-  <IfModule mod_env.c>
-    SetEnv htaccessWorking true
-  </IfModule>
+    php_value default_charset 'UTF-8'
+    php_value output_buffering 0
+    <IfModule mod_env.c>
+        SetEnv htaccessWorking true
+    </IfModule>
 </IfModule>
 
 <IfModule mod_mime.c>
-  AddType image/svg+xml svg svgz
-  AddType application/wasm wasm
-  AddEncoding gzip svgz
-  # Serve ESM javascript files (.mjs) with correct mime type
-  AddType text/javascript js mjs
+    AddType image/svg+xml svg svgz
+    AddType application/wasm wasm
+    AddEncoding gzip svgz
+    # Serve ESM javascript files (.mjs) with correct mime type
+    AddType text/javascript js mjs
 </IfModule>
 
 <IfModule mod_dir.c>
-  DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
+    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
 </IfModule>
 
 <IfModule pagespeed_module>
-  ModPagespeed Off
+    ModPagespeed Off
 </IfModule>
 
+#############
+#### Rewrites
+#############
+
 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
-  RewriteEngine on
-  RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} DavClnt
-  RewriteRule ^$ /remote.php/webdav/ [L,R=302]
-  RewriteRule .* - [env=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
-  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/carddav /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
-  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/caldav /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
-  RewriteRule ^remote/(.*) remote.php [QSA,L]
-  RewriteRule ^(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates)/.* - [R=404,L]
-  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/(?!acme-challenge|pki-validation) /index.php [QSA,L]
-  RewriteRule ^ocm-provider/?$ index.php [QSA,L]
-  RewriteRule ^(?:\.(?!well-known)|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console).* - [R=404,L]
+    RewriteEngine on
+
+##
+## Rule: Workaround for WebDAV with apache+php-cgi
+##
+## Context:
+##    - Sets the environment variable `HTTP_AUTHORIZATION` to the value of the `Authorization` request header
+##    - Always executed before and along with other rules (no `L` used)
+##    - XXX: *May* be replaced with an equivalent SetEnvIf in theory
+##    - XXX: SetEnvIf approach is already in use above for mod_proxy_cgi / mod_lsapi / mod_fcgid
+##
+
+    RewriteRule .* - [env=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
+
+##
+## Rule: Workaround for WebDAV with MS DavClnt
+##
+## Context: 
+##    - DavClnt attempts an OPTIONS request against `/` instead of the specified endpoint
+##    - Redirects the client to the endpoint rather than the login page (which confuses DavClnt)
+##
+
+    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} DavClnt
+    RewriteRule ^$ /remote.php/webdav/ [L,R=302]
+
+##
+## Rule: Map the RFC 8615 / RFC 6764 compliant well-known URI for CardDAV to our Remote DAV endpoint
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^\.well-known/carddav /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Map the RFC 8615 / RFC 6764 compliant well-known URI for CalDAV to our Remote DAV endpoint
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^\.well-known/caldav /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Map /remote* --> /remote.php* including the query string
+##
+## Context:
+##    - XXX: `QSA` seems unnecessary (no-op) here (query string is passed by default when the replacement URI doesn't contain a query string)
+##    - XXX: Is this even used anymore? Seems a relic from <NC12
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^remote/(.*) remote.php [QSA,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Prevent access to non-public files
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates)/.* - [R=404,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Maps most RFC 8615 compliant well-known URIs to our main frontend controller (/index.php) by default
+##
+## Context:
+##    - Intentionally excludes URIs used for HTTPS certificate verifications
+##        - RFC 8555 / ACME HTTP Challenges (acme-challenge) 
+##        - File-based Validations (pki-validation)
+##    - XXX: `QSA` seems unnecessary (no-op) here (query string is passed by default when the replacement URI doesn't contain a query string)
+##    - XXX: Sometimes we are using `/index.php` and other times `index.php` as our replacement URI; this may be incorrect
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^\.well-known/(?!acme-challenge|pki-validation) /index.php [QSA,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Map the ocm-provider handling to our main frontend controller (/index.php)
+##
+## Context:
+##    - XXX: `QSA` seems unnecessary (no-op) here (query string is passed by default when the replacement URI doesn't contain a query string)
+##    - XXX: Sometimes we are using `/index.php` and other times `index.php` as our replacement URI; this may be incorrect
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^ocm-provider/?$ index.php [QSA,L]
+
+##
+## Rule: Prevent access to more non-public files
+##
+## Context:
+##    - XXX It may make sense to merge some of these with the others (i.e. the ones that don't need to be last)
+##
+
+    RewriteRule ^(?:\.(?!well-known)|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console).* - [R=404,L]
+
 </IfModule>
 
 # Clients like xDavv5 on Android, or Cyberduck, use chunked requests.
@@ -105,16 +183,18 @@
 # Here are more information about the issue:
 #  - https://docs.cyberduck.io/mountainduck/issues/fastcgi/
 #  - https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/issues/general_troubleshooting.html#troubleshooting-webdav
+
 <IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
-  SetEnvIfNoCase Transfer-Encoding "chunked" proxy-sendcl=1
+    SetEnvIfNoCase Transfer-Encoding "chunked" proxy-sendcl=1
 </IfModule>
 
 # Apache disabled the sending of the server-side content-length header
 # in their 2.4.59 patch updated which breaks some use-cases in Nextcloud.
 # Setting ap_trust_cgilike_cl allows to bring back the usual behaviour.
 # See https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=68973
+
 <IfModule mod_env.c>
-  SetEnv ap_trust_cgilike_cl
+    SetEnv ap_trust_cgilike_cl
 </IfModule>
 
 AddDefaultCharset utf-8