> FTP is for static files, why would you do on the fly compression? People used to just transfer precompressed files like tar.gz or zip files
Indeed they did. But that was when the majority of users were technicians. These days we need a protocol for layman.
> FTP has an ascii transfer mode because operating systems have different line endings and this automatically translates for them.
I know, I left that part you because it wasn't relevant to my point but I'm glad you raised it as it's another feature that isn't necessary these days because, aside Notepad.exe, every text editor on the planet can handle different line endings. Thus ASCII mode is just another point to break files for inexperienced users (I'm not really happy with the kludge that some clients use either; by using the file extension to guess the correct method of transport)
FTP has an ascii transfer mode because operating systems have different line endings and this automatically translates for them.