> services such as https://restdb.io/ or https://fauna.com/
These are a no-go. Why should I use a proprietary solution when there are superior free open source offerings? Sure it's more effort to spin up an aws ec2 instance but that's very well worth it. I then have full control over my database and I don't have to deal with proprietary sh*t.
> RPC-named express routes is more than sufficient
Yes RPC is exactly what I was looking for. It's super simple. I don't need all that REST and GraphQL stuff.
> REST solves
Honestly, I don't understand what REST solves.
> over-engineering a simple app can lead to greater confusion.
Yes simplicity is key.
> RPC-named express routes is more than sufficient
Actually for Node.js there is Wildcard API[1] which I discovered yesterday. It's even simpler than express routes.