I agree. I also think that URLs will always be ephemeral because you can't control the TLD. If the TLD operator increases the price or introduces new conditions that are disagreeable you have no way of handling redirection.
If something is important to the site operator they will make their content discoverable.
If something is important to the reader then they should archive/snapshot it.
In either case, stable URIs are non-essential but in the latter case you are protecting yourself from domain name changes too.
Comments
I agree. I also think that URLs will always be ephemeral because you can't control the TLD. If the TLD operator increases the price or introduces new conditions that are disagreeable you have no way of handling redirection.
If something is important to the site operator they will make their content discoverable. If something is important to the reader then they should archive/snapshot it.
In either case, stable URIs are non-essential but in the latter case you are protecting yourself from domain name changes too.