Meme transcription: Panel 1. Two images of JSON, one is the empty object, one is an object in which the key name maps to the value null. Caption: “Corporate needs you to find the difference between this picture and this picture”
Panel 2. The Java backend dev answers, “They’re the same picture.”
I.e. waste a ton of bandwidth sending a ridiculous amount of useless data in every request, all because your backend engineers don't know how to program for shit.
Gotcha.
It's about making APIs more flexible, permissive, and harder to misuse by clients. It's a user-centric approach to API design. It's not done to make it easier on backend. If anything, it can take extra effort by backend developers.
But you'd clearly prefer vitriol to civil discourse and have no interest in actually learning anything, so I think my time would be better spent elsewhere.