Performance in this case is overrated. You forget people want to have independent system which can't be shut down or controlled, that's the point of a network.
> You'll have a devil of a time just deploying and testing the fucking thing, forget about development.
Who cares about that ? Engineering is about results, not ease of work. Once you get results in engineering, you have them for life. Business wants easy solution, that's understandable, but the engineer's job is also to bring new products not done before. Consumers and businessmen rarely or never know about what can be done.
> This is NOT something any sane engineer would want if he could avoid it by getting Grandma what she wants by using a simpler alternative.
If the "simpler alternative" is now the majority, I can't understand how you can call this an alternative. At the beginning, networking was designed as in anybody can send to anybody. Most of the time engineers deliver solution to problems people are complaining about, but sometimes there are inherent problems only the engineers are aware of, in which the solution can actually create true value.