[jkarneges]

Yes there is some duplication of TCP capability here.

The problem with relying on TCP for reliability is that its state is in memory, associated with a particular peer IP address, and acknowledgements passed back to the sender only indicate that the receiver has the data in local memory, not that the data has been processed.

A file download over TCP can fail, for example due to a network problem. Ensuring reliable delivery requires additional measures outside of TCP, such as retrying the download using a new connection.

In practice, this means that TCP is primarily useful for providing flow control and offering a streaming interface (no worry about packet sizes). Less so as a complete solution for transmission reliability.