True, but we have generations of developers whose mental model for this stuff is based on stateless protocols, and that naturally bleeds through into the software architectures they produce. I definitely notice the difference when talking to engineers who have experience developing stateful software (e.g., desktop apps, client/server, etc.), vs. those whose experience is primarily with web apps (not that web apps can't be stateful, I guess just different levels).

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, in the context of offline-first mobile dev. That's a tough nut to crack, and I find myself re-evaluating some classic distributed system stuff I haven't really thought about in years. Gotta dust some old gears off!