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> NAT was a necessity when it was being introduced, so I don't understand the complaints. Sure it's annoying, but what was the alternative?

IPv6

Nope. IPv6 still isn't supported everywhere.

When you're running out of addresses, you need a workable solution at the moment.

Not something that requires all networking equipment worldwide to be replaced with a new standard all at once, with is a practical impossibility.

It doesn't have to be replaced all at once. Most of it already has been replaced.

But it has to be entirely replaced in order to turn off the last NAT, essentially.

Being half-replaced or even mostly-replaced gets you nowhere in terms of NAT removal.

IPv6 would have been great if it was just bigger addresses but the actual system we got suffers heavily from the second-system effect.