Some SEOs split XML sitemaps into categorized files for different operational and technical reasons. URL types can be grouped, such as separating product detail pages from product category pages, which can also be reflected in reporting. Content can be split by freshness so that older evergreen URLs are checked less frequently, though the practical impact may vary. Sitemaps can be proactively divided to avoid reaching a 50k URL threshold that would require urgent changes. Hreflang sitemaps can consume significant space, so splitting helps prevent files from becoming too large. Some splits may also occur simply due to tooling or setup behavior.
"Want to track different kinds of urls in groups ("product detail page sitemap" vs "product category sitemap" -- which you can kinda do with the page indexing report)"
"Split by freshness (evergreen content in a separate sitemap file - theoretically a search engine might not need to check the "old" sitemap as often; I don't know if this actually happens tho)"
"Proactively split (so that you don't get to 50k and have to urgently figure out how to change your setup)"
"Hreflang sitemaps (can take a ton of space, so the 50k URLs could make the files too large)"
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