[nayuki]

> I was impressed at how easy it is to work with the matrix protocol

I think you were interacting with Synapse, the Matrix homeserver implementation, which is why you had an easy time. But I can't imagine the work done by Synapse to sync up with other servers is easy - and that's what I would consider the real protocol.

[Gigachad]

There are two protocols. The Server-Server protocol, and the Client-Server protocol. Both are "real". I was using the Client-Server protocol which synapse implements but other servers would implement exactly the same HTTP protocol.