[ROARosen]

I don't get your point. There will obviously be cased where API's are not needed or too complicated to maintain, which was presumably the case with Firefox, which BTW is a locally installed platform. I don't see how this affect the general discussion regarding (mostly) web platforms - which usually run on a client-server model anyway - maximizing their API footprint to expose the most functionality possible via their API.

Just because you or anyone working there doesn't see a useful use case for using that functionality over the API doesn't mean there won't be someone who will come up with something useful based on that in the future.

[wpietri]

My point is very simple. You said "the more API coverage a platform can provide the better". I'm saying that's not true because it can create large long-term costs that outweigh the benefits. I even gave an example. I get why you as an API consumer want maximum surface area. But API producers often feel differently, and they have good reason to. I think the better general strategy for API producers is to open up gradually based on actual need discovered via dialog with community.