1. If the website is correctly using HSTS, the new HTTPS DNS record, or redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS manually with a 301 then you don't even need to specify a protocol. Just put in domain.TLD and go.
2. ???
3. Yes, it's the protocol definition and that's what it means, correct.
4. Without the protocol, it's not a URL. The specification of a valid URL can be read here https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1738 where it points out that a "scheme" (the protocol, such as "http" or "http" or "ftp") is required.The problem is your examples assume you're talking about ONLY a web server, when you can put ftp:// or ssh:// or even gopher:// in front of ycombinator.com and the connection process will be vastly different, as they are different schemes of communication. Websites will always require a valid protocol before the domain because otherwise there's no way to know for sure where the link is meant to go.
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