[andrewingram]

One of the key problems GraphQL aims to solve is the very idea you present in your first paragraph.

The proliferation of ad-hoc REST endpoints is a serious problem. Standards like JSON API (http://jsonapi.org/) do a good job of mitigating the issue (and are probably a good first step for preparing your API for being encapsulated within a GraphQL server), but they are just a band-aid around the problem.

We've all concluded that mobile apps (for now) should only be making one API request to get all data needed (if possible), so we end up constructing custom end-points per use-case that return exactly what's needed. Then a new version of the app comes along with slightly different data requirements, so we make a new end-point. We end up in a really bad place. Developer discipline is part of the problem, but the fact is that we're probably using the wrong technology.

SOAP was awful, REST is much nicer. But GraphQL is a dream. It genuinely feels like every time I add a new piece of data to my schema, my productivity accelerates. A well-considered, well-maintained GraphQL server is a significant improvement over REST endpoint. GraphQL may not be the ultimate solution here, but it solves a lot of pain-points i've been having for the last few years.