I feel at this point reminiscing about a time when the web was actually designed to be usable isn’t really productive.
Some of the largest companies on the planet are actively opposed to this concept. If you care about this kind of thing champion it from within your own organization.
A lot of things can be said about the impact that the largest companies have on the web, but on the specific discussion about not breaking URIs, I think they are generally good at keeping, or redirecting, links to content for as long as the content is up.
Some of the largest companies on the planet are actively opposed to this concept. If you care about this kind of thing champion it from within your own organization.