RTF tried to make it clear in his famous dissertation that REST was about resource-oriented hypermedia, and that apps not designed around hypermedia should use different architectures -- he even names some of them. Unfortunately he inspired many followers to interpret it to mean that hypermedia is the One And Only True Way to design apps for the web.

Can you provide a link where I can learn more about "Buf Connect". A search gives me a lot of different results. Not sure what's official.