[Semibug] Why does Linux do this?

[Jonathan Drews]

5.4.0-149-generic #166-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 18 16:51:45 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I wanted to find out where vi was so I do:
cleetus at cleetus-ThinkPad-T480s:~$ whereis vi
vi: /usr/bin/vi /usr/share/man/man1/vi.1.gz
cleetus at cleetus-ThinkPad-T480s:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Mar 11  2022 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi
cleetus at cleetus-ThinkPad-T480s:~$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Mar 11  2022 /etc/alternatives/vi -> /usr/bin/vim.tiny
cleetus at cleetus-ThinkPad-T480s:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/vim.tiny 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1353944 Apr 18 04:20 /usr/bin/vim.tiny


My question: What is the purpose of the multiple symlinks?