upstart, runlevels and "make files"

QUESTION: Does any of this make sense? [NOTE -- I do not advocate that we chase traditional "makefiles"
or the corresponding arcane syntax. Please don't comment or berate my question on those grounds.]

As I understand, a "runlevel" is an integer assigned to a specific set of workstation configuration details
-- settings, available scripts and programs, active drivers and modules, connected hardware, etc.
For example, runlevel = '1' means "I want a single user workstation" In the olde days, one would say,
[code]
user@host$ sudo telinit 1
[/code]

to activate the "single user" configuration. Later one might say,
[code]
user@host$ sudo telinit 5
[/code]
to active a "multi-user, graphical, networking" configuration.

Now that we have Upstart and its events and jobs and tasks, I findmyself thinking "make multi-user graphical networking [happen]"
which then implies a given suite of jobs, and tasks and events. Some will be disabled and de-activated. Others will be
enabled and activated. Still others will be armed and ready. Consider, I am running single-user with a keyboard and without
a GUI. I might enable graphical but I have not yet connected a pointing device or a suitable display. My configuration might be
armed and ready for these connections when and if the hardware becomes available. In contrast, in not-graphical, my attempts
to connect a mouse might no-op or simply log, "pointer==mouse seen; device not permitted when not-graphical..." or similar.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan