Why the default? Well there is very little cost for what it offers. It takes developers a few days or more likely now a few hours to setup and only serves the

Why the default? Well there is very little cost for what it offers. It takes developers a few days or more likely now a few hours to setup and only serves the viewer better. It affords the visitor some level of trust that the site hasn't been tampered with and their login credentials aren't being siphoned off for example. If you are the author of a blog (with comments disabled), and you don't care if your message is manipulated, then thats your choice. But before you know it vanilla http will be blocked in browsers, and you'll need to make the change anyway.