diff --git a/pkg/component/config.go b/pkg/component/config.go
index 50b5e590e6b..781e2e7624f 100644
--- a/pkg/component/config.go
+++ b/pkg/component/config.go
@@ -108,19 +108,21 @@ func ExpectedConfig(cfg map[string]interface{}) (*proto.UnitExpectedConfig, erro
 	return result, nil
 }
 
-// dataStreamAndSource is a generic way to represent proto mesages
-// that contain a source field and a datastream field.
-type dataStreamAndSource interface {
-	GetDataStream() *proto.DataStream
-	GetSource() *structpb.Struct
-}
-
-func deDotDataStream(raw dataStreamAndSource) (*proto.DataStream, error) {
-	ds := raw.GetDataStream()
+func deDotDataStream(ds *proto.DataStream, source *structpb.Struct) (*proto.DataStream, error) {
 	if ds == nil {
 		ds = &proto.DataStream{}
 	}
 
+	cfg, err := config.NewConfigFrom(source.AsMap())
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot generate config from source field: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	// Create a temporary struct to unpack the configuration.
+	// Unpack correctly handles any flattened fields like
+	// data_stream.type. So all we need to do is to call Unpack,
+	// ensure the DataStream does not have a different value,
+	// them merge them both.
 	tmp := struct {
 		DataStream struct {
 			Dataset   string `config:"dataset" yaml:"dataset"`
@@ -129,11 +131,6 @@ func deDotDataStream(raw dataStreamAndSource) (*proto.DataStream, error) {
 		} `config:"data_stream" yaml:"data_stream"`
 	}{}
 
-	cfg, err := config.NewConfigFrom(raw.GetSource().AsMap())
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot generate config from source field: %w", err)
-	}
-
 	if err := cfg.Unpack(&tmp); err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot unpack source field into struct: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -151,17 +148,17 @@ func deDotDataStream(raw dataStreamAndSource) (*proto.DataStream, error) {
 	}
 
 	ret := &proto.DataStream{
-		Dataset:   merge(tmp.DataStream.Dataset, ds.Dataset),
-		Type:      merge(tmp.DataStream.Type, ds.Type),
-		Namespace: merge(tmp.DataStream.Namespace, ds.Namespace),
-		Source:    raw.GetDataStream().GetSource(),
+		Dataset:   valueOrDefault(tmp.DataStream.Dataset, ds.Dataset),
+		Type:      valueOrDefault(tmp.DataStream.Type, ds.Type),
+		Namespace: valueOrDefault(tmp.DataStream.Namespace, ds.Namespace),
+		Source:    ds.GetSource(),
 	}
 
 	return ret, nil
 }
 
-// merge returns b if a is an empty string
-func merge(a, b string) string {
+// valueOrDefault returns b if a is an empty string
+func valueOrDefault(a, b string) string {
 	if a == "" {
 		return b
 	}
@@ -170,13 +167,13 @@ func merge(a, b string) string {
 
 func updateDataStreamsFromSource(unitConfig *proto.UnitExpectedConfig) error {
 	var err error
-	unitConfig.DataStream, err = deDotDataStream(unitConfig)
+	unitConfig.DataStream, err = deDotDataStream(unitConfig.GetDataStream(), unitConfig.GetSource())
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not parse data_stream from input: %w", err)
 	}
 
 	for i, stream := range unitConfig.Streams {
-		stream.DataStream, err = deDotDataStream(stream)
+		stream.DataStream, err = deDotDataStream(stream.GetDataStream(), stream.GetSource())
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("could not parse data_stream from stream [%d]: %w",
 				i, err)