> Therein lies the problem. Do we really all have to shoulder youtube's (and porn networks) problems?
No, you don't. Whether you're working on the client or server side, you can keep using HTTP/1.1, and the other side will downgrade to accommodate you. Meanwhile, those of us who want to optimally serve our users on both good and bad connections will just use the multiple, freely available implementations of HTTP/2 and eventually HTTP/3.
This is half truth at best. It's only a matter of time until HTTP/1.1 is forced out by the tech/browser oligopoly: just look where we are with plaintext HTTP now.
The reason for HTTP3 is marginal gains that only make sense at enormous scales for large operators. The rest of us pay for this with increased complexity.
No, you don't. Whether you're working on the client or server side, you can keep using HTTP/1.1, and the other side will downgrade to accommodate you. Meanwhile, those of us who want to optimally serve our users on both good and bad connections will just use the multiple, freely available implementations of HTTP/2 and eventually HTTP/3.