I agree. I also think that URLs will always be ephemeral because you can't control the TLD. If the TLD operator increases the price or introduces new conditions that are disagreeable you have no way of handling redirection.

If something is important to the site operator they will make their content discoverable. If something is important to the reader then they should archive/snapshot it.

In either case, stable URIs are non-essential but in the latter case you are protecting yourself from domain name changes too.

This just means you’ve accepted URLs as something different than they were made to be. If the resource no longer exists - fine, c’est la vie. Otherwise, there should never be any need for it to change. It should never have encoded any implementation details anyway.

That's like saying the Dewey decimal system is creepy because it doesn't change. That's the point! A reference should be where you left it. Why must it change?

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