The OP has essentially used circular logic: RPC is as good as REST because I know how to use it to address the issues that REST addresses (which I doubt, incide

The OP has essentially used circular logic: RPC is as good as REST because I know how to use it to address the issues that REST addresses (which I doubt, incidentally). This to me is like arguing that object-oriented programming isn't really any better than procedural programming because I know how to write well-structured procedural programs. This is completely beside the point, which is that procedural programming as a style tends toward balls-of-mud programs (to simplify things), and object-oriented techniques were conceived of in order to address the characteristics of procedural programming that are the cause of this tendency. I view RESTful API programming in a similar vein: RPC also has negative tendencies (such as the creation of fragile protocols), and REST addresses many, if not all of those. Most of the time for more people, RESTful techniques will lead to better service and API design than will RPC, just like for most of the people most of the time, object-oriented programming will lead to better programs than will procedural programming.