once again, another question – and another answer.  this time we are discussing the metadata layer as compared to a traditional approach for reporting.  if you have comments, thoughts, or other experiences i encourage you to add your comment to the end of this posting.  

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what does a the metadata layer look like for reporting compared to a traditional approach?

there really is no difference.  a metadata layer is a metadata layer – and remains separate from the data warehouse.  now, there is a rule here that can’t be ignored:  the data vault carries raw data – that is: the good, the bad, and the ugly data.  it is not cleansed, it is not fixed, it is not massaged – so in this regard, it should “never” be released to the business users this way.   but if you really want to release this data, i would recommend you build views that look like dimensions and facts – and have the reporting tools hit those.  when performance takes a dive, then you physically build data marts (turn the views into real tables).

but: what you really should do is either a) build a business data vault or b) build star schemas with business logic in the etl going from the raw data vault to the data marts.