Yes, the article states that directly before the line I quoted -- I assumed it would be recognized. In practice very few APIs are tolerant of unexpected fields

Yes, the article states that directly before the line I quoted -- I assumed it would be recognized. In practice very few APIs are tolerant of unexpected fields, values, or protocols. Forget the protocol war that other commenters are expecting, our devices should interact regardless of protocol. Only then will producers be forced to compete on useful features.