I think HTTP before HTTP/2 _is_ simple, but it limits its usefulness too, leading to pain when you want to do anything outside of what was included in the initi

I think HTTP before HTTP/2 _is_ simple, but it limits its usefulness too, leading to pain when you want to do anything outside of what was included in the initial design. But, I'd even argue the best version of HTTP is HTTP/1.0 + ability to specify Host: header (many web servers accept it when requesting via HTTP/1.0 even though it's been introduced in 1.1). The later extensions, including HTTP/1.1 are much harder to implement, thus limiting your implementation options and what you can do with it. In terms of usefulness for the web (browsers) on the other hand HTTP/3 is the best, but it's far from simple and I doubt anyone would call it that too. Version 1.0 was really simple though, and that makes it beautiful