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IPv6 is arguably a good example of what happens when you don't do the simplest thing possible. What we really needed was a bigger IP address space. What we got was a whole bunch of other crap. If we had literally expanded IPv4 by a couple of octets at the end (with compatible routing), would we be there now?

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In a place with even less IPv6 adoption, probably. It's not like there wasn't similar proposals discussed, and there's no need to rehash the exact same discussion again.

The problem quickly becomes "how do you route it", and that's where we end up with something like today's IPv6. Route aggregation and PI addresses is impratical with IPv4 + extra bits.

The main changes from v4 to v6 besides the extra bits is mostly that some unnecessary complexity was dropped, which in the end is net positive for adoption.

That “with compatible routing” thing pulls a lot of weight… I mean, if you have literal magic, then sure.

Apart from that, IPv6 _is_ IPv4 with a bigger address space. It's so similar it's remarkable.

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