What I was trying to imply is: just compare the HTTP/2 spec and the HTTP/1 one. The HTTP/1 has chapters like Request, Response, Method definitions, Header Fiel

What I was trying to imply is: just compare the HTTP/2 spec and the HTTP/1 one. The HTTP/1 has chapters like Request, Response, Method definitions, Header Field definitions, etc. All things you would expect from an application layer protocol, designed to transfer HTML documents, which made sense at the time. Now, HTTP/2 pretty much keeps all these things, but most of the spec is about Streams, Multiplexing, Flow Control and such terms. Does that sound like it should be part of an application layer protocol on top of TCP? To me, it definitely does not. EDIT: And that's not even touching the question whether it makes sense to build on the original HTTP protocol at all given how much the web has changed since its inception.