Does MQTT offer anything novel to the call/response problem if it's not just updates (e.g. battery controlled nodes that need to know when to wake up and act)?

Does MQTT offer anything novel to the call/response problem if it's not just updates (e.g. battery controlled nodes that need to know when to wake up and act)? I started developing a system ~a decade ago and ended up writing my own messaging protocols/queue systems. It's been an uphill battle, and if there's something a little more modern in the wings I'm all ears (I'm porting over to more modern uC's so it makes sense to re-evaluate the stack I suppose...)