HATEOAS is not a standard nora specification. It's a basic part of the REST architecture style.
> "When designing a hypermedia API [per HATEOAS standards], you're really designing for a client that does not, and will never, exist."
I don't believe this is factual or even conceivable. Arguably, OData speficies a standard that designs clients and servers that are full-on REST (per HATEOAS standards) and it does exist and is used in the wild for some years now.
Additionally, there are other standards and specs that do help to implement full-on REST, such as HAL or JSON-LD.
HATEOAS is not a standard nora specification. It's a basic part of the REST architecture style.
> "When designing a hypermedia API [per HATEOAS standards], you're really designing for a client that does not, and will never, exist."
I don't believe this is factual or even conceivable. Arguably, OData speficies a standard that designs clients and servers that are full-on REST (per HATEOAS standards) and it does exist and is used in the wild for some years now.
Additionally, there are other standards and specs that do help to implement full-on REST, such as HAL or JSON-LD.