Convention for multiple items in an XML file

It is common in XML files, when giving a list of items, to surround them in a multiple tag. For example:

<system>
    <version>2</version>
    <title>The system</system>
    <items>
        <item id="1">one</item>
        <item id="2">two</item>
        <item id="3">three</item>
        <item id="4">four</item>
    </items>
    <link>stackoverflow.com</link>
</system>

whereas it seems more simple to me to write

<system>
    <version>2</version>
    <title>The system</system>
    <item id="1">one</item>
    <item id="2">two</item>
    <item id="3">three</item>
    <item id="4">four</item>
    <link>stackoverflow.com</link>
</system>

Is there a good reason for extra verbage in what is already a verbose form?