[movpasd]

Seems like an example of "worse is better". The worse solution has better survival characteristics (on account of getting actually made).

[DrewADesign]

I wouldn’t say it’s the worst… a largely decentralized worldwide namespace is not an easy thing to tackle and for the most part it totally works.

[ifwinterco]

I actually think the design of DNS is really cool. I'm sure we could do better designing from a clean slate today, especially around security (designing with the assumption of an adversarial environment).

But DNS was designed in the 80s! It's actually a minor miracle it works as well as it does