> I'm certain there are reasons IP came to live alongside/on top of MAC
There were different teams/universities working on what today we would call LAN and WAN. I forget the details and history (I'm sure someone here, who was involved, could chime in, hah) and might have this wrong, but the result is LAN networking is MAC based while WAN networking is IP based.
It's one of those accidents of history that things are just the way they are and many don't question it. I run into it a lot describing basic networking concepts or early cisco material when people ask _why_ both MACs and IP addresses exist and its just... not always the correct time to explain those details to them.
There were different teams/universities working on what today we would call LAN and WAN. I forget the details and history (I'm sure someone here, who was involved, could chime in, hah) and might have this wrong, but the result is LAN networking is MAC based while WAN networking is IP based.
It's one of those accidents of history that things are just the way they are and many don't question it. I run into it a lot describing basic networking concepts or early cisco material when people ask _why_ both MACs and IP addresses exist and its just... not always the correct time to explain those details to them.