Bread making, lightly oiled bowl covered, why? Every dough recipe I have ever seen follows the same paradigm. Mix ingredients, kneed, rest, kneed, roll into a ball and place in a lightly oiled covered bowl, separate and form. Allow to rise again, bake. 

I don’t understand the significance of the bowl step. Why the ball?  Maximizing surface area? 
How does the oil help?   Is that just to stop it from sticking to the bowl?  Why the bowl?   Why cover it?  Is this to limit oxygen?   Bread yeast shouldn’t need anaerobic production should it?
The bowl is simply to contain the dough.  You can use any container you like.  Depending on the type of bread you are making, you often need to build gluten strength, this ends with pre-shaping and shaping.  Shaping matters at this point. With kneaded bread, the "ball" is simply an artifact of kneading or stretching and folding.  Covering reduces the chance of the surface drying out, and helps maintain temperature.  Oil in the bowl is not necessary in most situations, and is not part of "every recipe."