That means that i) NAT+v4 is here to stay, permanently, as the
packet-forwarding substrate on which we have to live, and ii) many
"solutions" to the "NAT problem" have a badly faulty key premise -
which is that the solution will fix IPv4's problems by replacing it.
almost agree. NAT is here to stay on v4, and apps that work fine with
NAT+v4 will continue to use NAT+v4, at least for the near to medium
term. nor is there likely to be a replacement for NAT in v4, because
there's no way to get any more addresses out of 32 bits.
so I don't see us replacing NAT in v4. but I do see us building another
network that uses the same layer 1-2 links as the IPv4+NAT network but
also provides an alternate layer 3.
the reason I point out the flaws with NAT is not that I think we can get
rid of them in v4. it's because some people are still of the belief that
NATs are mostly harmless and that we should not only permit them
into v6, but extend our architecture to embrace them. that's simply
insane.
Keith