> Does this have any actual grounding in reality

Depends on your use case I suppose. For things I want to ensure I can reference forever (theoretical forever), then using location for that reference feels less than ideal, I cannot even count the number of dead bookmarks on both hands and feet, so "link rot" is a real issue.

If those bookmarks instead referenced the actual content (via content-addressing for example), rather than the location, then those would still work today.

But again, not everyone cares about things sticking around, not all use cases require the reference to continue being alive, and so on, so if it's applicable to you or not is something only you can decide.