The benefit is not (necessarily) that these ways of doing things are inherently better; it's that they are commonly used. If you do things in this manner, ever

The benefit is not (necessarily) that these ways of doing things are inherently better; it's that they are commonly used. If you do things in this manner, everyone who has to deal with your API will have a good understanding of how it works. Even people who've never studied REST will have a good idea of how it works, as long as they are familiar with the web in general.