That makes sense. I've probably been thinking more about remote network protocols, where the time it takes for a message to reach its destination will be so lar

That makes sense. I've probably been thinking more about remote network protocols, where the time it takes for a message to reach its destination will be so large that the overhead for a few extra bytes per message is negligible; for a protocol used solely within a given local system, there would be a much lower threshold of acceptable overhead.