It is challenging to forecast how client-server architectures would evolve on the basis of technical merit, even if we restrict to "web architectures" (this itself being a bundle of multiple options).
Massive scaling with minimal resources is certainly one important enabler. If you were, e.g., to re-architect wikipedia with the knowledge and hardware of today how would you do it with wasm (on both desktop and mobile). How about a massive multiplayer game etc.
On the other hand you have the constraints and costs of current commercial / business model realities and legacy patterns that create a high bar for any innovation to flurish. But high does not mean infinitely high.
I hate to be the person mentioning AI on every HN thread but its a good example of the long stagnation and then torrential change that is the hallmark of how online connected computing adoption evolves: e.g., we could have had online numerically very intensive apps and API's a long time ago already (LLM's are not the only useful algorithm invented by humankind). But we didnt. It takes engineering a stampede to move the lazy (cash) cows to new grass land.
So it does feel that at some point starting with a fresh canvas might make sense (as in, substantially expand what is possible). When the cruft accumulates sometimes it collapses under its own weight.
Massive scaling with minimal resources is certainly one important enabler. If you were, e.g., to re-architect wikipedia with the knowledge and hardware of today how would you do it with wasm (on both desktop and mobile). How about a massive multiplayer game etc.
On the other hand you have the constraints and costs of current commercial / business model realities and legacy patterns that create a high bar for any innovation to flurish. But high does not mean infinitely high.
I hate to be the person mentioning AI on every HN thread but its a good example of the long stagnation and then torrential change that is the hallmark of how online connected computing adoption evolves: e.g., we could have had online numerically very intensive apps and API's a long time ago already (LLM's are not the only useful algorithm invented by humankind). But we didnt. It takes engineering a stampede to move the lazy (cash) cows to new grass land.
So it does feel that at some point starting with a fresh canvas might make sense (as in, substantially expand what is possible). When the cruft accumulates sometimes it collapses under its own weight.