[dspillett]

I don't think it is at all fair to call POP3 inefficient on this basis. It is fine if you use it in the way it is intended (and presumably optimised) for. It was designed as a delivery mechanism back when people didn't tend to have permanent connections and space on servers wasn't cheap. Users wanted mail locally for disconnected use and servers wanted rid of it once delivered onward.

Where it is not the right tool for the job, use the tool that is instead (IMAP presumably in this case).

[tinus_hn]

Sure, it’s fine if you need to do something nobody wants. Great.

[dspillett]

It seems that something that doesn't meet your needs (but did match many people's requirements in the past and may still meet some people's needs now) exists is causing you some offence.

Have you been "burned" by problems with POP3 in some specific way that has made you feel this bitter towards it rather then using the right tool for a job it presumably isn't right for and moving on? Or are you being forced to use it in some circumstance?

> something nobody wants

You are not everybody. Just because you can't imagine a valid use case these days does not mean that one does not exist. While IMAP-with-local-caching can replace most use cases for POP3, does it replace all of them in an optimal manner?