HTTP as a pure transport protocol keeps coming back to the default, because it works. Its superpower is that it pushes stateless (and secure) design from end to

HTTP as a pure transport protocol keeps coming back to the default, because it works. Its superpower is that it pushes stateless (and secure) design from end to end. You have to fight a losing battle to get around that, so if you play along, you can end up with better power efficiency, resiliency and scalability. REST is just very simple to understand and easy to prototype with. There's better abstractions on top of HTTP, like GraphQL and gRPC (as you mentioned), but you can layer those on after you have a working solution and are looking for more performance. HTTP3 is on the way this decade and I'm excited for its promises. Given how long it took for HTTP2 to standardize, I'm not optimistic it will be soon, but it does mean we have a path forward.