I think that while we try to understand why we find so much meaning in interpreting baybayin symbols as both writing symbols and metaphorical symbols, we also need to pay attention to other cultures’s writing systems such as Runes and how those who are studying it also learn that meaning is gleaned from the symbols on multiple levels too.

In an article at the Science Daily online, 

A Stone Says More Than a Thousand Runes

“At the same time those who could read were able to glean much more information from a rune stone than merely what was written in runes. This is shown in new research from Uppsala University in Sweden.”

“On many rune stones the interplay between ornamentation and the runes is striking. To people of the Viking Age, the actual runes were only part of the message of the rune stone,” [Marco Bianchi] says.

Please click this link to read more.