In retrospect, definitely. But a huge part of why Wi-Fi is so successful is the wide compatibility, so we're stuck with a design that is 20+ years old. Beacons

In retrospect, definitely. But a huge part of why Wi-Fi is so successful is the wide compatibility, so we're stuck with a design that is 20+ years old. Beacons also serve to do power saving wake-ups and various other things these days, and there's room to optimize them if the Wi-Fi alliance were stricter - some vendors are broadcasting their manufacturer and model (and sometimes serial number!) every 100ms as well as lots of other unnecessary information elements.