> It completely ignores that the "port number" abstraction for service identification has completely failed due to the industry glomming onto HTTP
If you have ever used multiple TCP or UDP connections in parallel on a single machine (doesn't matter if server or client) then you should realize that ports are required.
Apart from that, you can run HTTP on other ports than 80. You can also use HTTP to load balance or do service discovery by means of redirects. (Caveat, I don't work in this field and can't say how solid the approach works in practice).
If you have ever used multiple TCP or UDP connections in parallel on a single machine (doesn't matter if server or client) then you should realize that ports are required.
Apart from that, you can run HTTP on other ports than 80. You can also use HTTP to load balance or do service discovery by means of redirects. (Caveat, I don't work in this field and can't say how solid the approach works in practice).