IPv6 reinvented hardly anything. It's pretty much IPv4, with longer addresses, and a handful of trivial things people wished were in IPv4 by consensus (e.g. fragmentation only at end hosts; less redundant checksums).
The main disagreements have been above what to do with the new addresses e.g. some platforms insist on SLAAC. (Which is good because it forces your ISP to give you a /64).
Devices operating at the IP layer aren't allowed to care about extension headers other than hop-by-hop, which must be the first header for this reason. Breaking your stupid middlebox is considered a good thing because these middleboxes are constantly breaking everyone's connections.
Your sockaddr complaints WOULD apply at double address length on platforms other than your favorite one. The IETF shouldn't be in charge of making BSD's API slightly more convenient at the expense of literally everything else. And with addresses twice as long, they wouldn't be as effectively infinite. You'd still need to be assigned one from your ISP. They'd still probably only give you one, or worse, charge you based on your number of devices. You'd still probably have NAT.
The main disagreements have been above what to do with the new addresses e.g. some platforms insist on SLAAC. (Which is good because it forces your ISP to give you a /64).
Devices operating at the IP layer aren't allowed to care about extension headers other than hop-by-hop, which must be the first header for this reason. Breaking your stupid middlebox is considered a good thing because these middleboxes are constantly breaking everyone's connections.
Your sockaddr complaints WOULD apply at double address length on platforms other than your favorite one. The IETF shouldn't be in charge of making BSD's API slightly more convenient at the expense of literally everything else. And with addresses twice as long, they wouldn't be as effectively infinite. You'd still need to be assigned one from your ISP. They'd still probably only give you one, or worse, charge you based on your number of devices. You'd still probably have NAT.