The issue this piece exposes is much wider than REST and completely independent of the validity/desirability of REST. The semantics of PUT and POST are defined in the HTTP spec, a much lower level than the architectural one at which REST exists. As such, everyone developing HTTP-enabled code SHOULD (RFC 2119) obey the proper semantics to make sure we all use the same vocabulary. I mean, c'mon guys, there's only a handful of verbs!

This is HTTP not REST. You need to understand this even if you're against REST.

(edited to remove tl;dr. It looked much longer in my text box)