Why is Route middleware groups important in Laravel applications, and what problem does it solve for developers?

Why is Route middleware groups important in Laravel applications, and what problem does it solve for developers? The key reason to understand route middleware groups is that Laravel applications are usually composed of several layers that must work together predictably. Related routes can share middleware by applying a group rather than repeating each middleware declaration. Ignoring that boundary can lead to duplicated logic, poor security, unnecessary database work, or code that is difficult to test. Why it matters in practice: Middleware inspects or modifies HTTP requests and responses and is commonly used for authentication, authorization, rate limiting, logging and request-level policy. The specific focus here is route middleware groups: Related routes can share middleware by applying a group rather than repeating each middleware declaration. This question is designed to test not only terminology, but also how the concept fits into Laravel's request, application, database, security, or deployment workflow.