really this is a symptom of how terrible web architecture is... the concrete examples make this painfully obvious - the API referred to is the 'modern hipster'

really this is a symptom of how terrible web architecture is... the concrete examples make this painfully obvious - the API referred to is the 'modern hipster' flavour of it, nothing to do with any of the APIs I use day to day which don't go across the web. there is a much more classical programming problem at the root of this. clients asking for what they want as implementation details instead of what they want from the result. couple this with a lack of sensibility about encapsulation and interfaces and sprinkle in the use of 'REST' as a buzzword and voila...