Quote: "Although it’s something I’ve only thought about recently, top computer scientists have been recognizing this as a problem for at least the past ten years"

10 years? Try since the dawn of computing, this was always a problem. Wanna know the most famous one, older than 50 years? Here it is:

In 1969, when Apollo mission on moon was live broadcasted by all the TV networks around the world, the image is of a grainy white and black, despite the fact that both NASA and TV stations already had color transmissions. Why? Because of the incompatibility of NASA transmission (which was a format more closer to our current HD - btw, can you imagine having HD format being common in 1969?) with NTSC/PAL systems at the time.

And what was the "API" that bridged (or in terms of the article "VendorOps") married these 2 incompatible formats? Use a projector on a wall and all TV stations filmed that wall instead of getting the real transmission. What a shame. Also NASA handling of the role films is abysmal, to say the least (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/not-unsolved-mysteries-the-lost...)