(HTTPS, actually.) HTTPS (when combined with JSON) provides requests and responses, without harsh size limits, with nice addressing. TCP provides a byte stream

(HTTPS, actually.) HTTPS (when combined with JSON) provides requests and responses, without harsh size limits, with nice addressing. TCP provides a byte stream. A lot of people are finding it easier to express their upper-level protocols in terms of requests and responses than in terms of a byte stream. Having to cope with NAT middleboxes breaking the byte stream doesn't help, of course.