FTP died long ago as a protocol, it wasn't killed by some corporations trying to embrace and extend, but by better protocols (SFTP, SCP, HTTP(S) etc.)
also FTP created a lot of issues behind NAT
wrt nat i would say that nat created a lot of issues with ftp
let me rephrase it.
FTP behind NAT had a lot of issues.
But the protocol was never designed to be accessed by a WEB browser, that were limited to read only access.
The best way to access FTP is through an FTP client.
I don't necessarily agree with the new wave of browser security at all costs, like HTTPS everywhere, but FTP clients are far from being hard to find.
> there is still a substantial information that is only accessible through ftp
can you point me to an example?
I haven't encountered that problem since the end of the 90s. The only instance I can recall is upgrading the firmware of home routers/modems using TFTP.
but because they waited until last year, removing that interoperability did not significantly affect their dominance as a way of accessing the internet