This so much, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an API that matches Fielding’s paper.

You are using one right now!

> REST [...] is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design [...] of the architecture for the World Wide Web. [1]

People forget that the Web is the original REST. You have

- resources (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45468477)

- HTTP verbs (GET, POST)

- and hypermedia controls (<a href="item?id=45468365">parent</a>)

This is all you need to meet Fielding's definition, and it has become so ubiquitous that we don't even notice it anymore.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST

Maybe we would be talking about hypermedia as the engine of application state more if somebody took the time to work on the acronym.