[destructionator]

> since those protocols do damage detection, only sending updates of what's changed

So does X.

> and (lossy) compression.

This is legitimate though, the X protocol has no support for any kind of bitmap compression and it can sometimes be pretty painful. Though internets getting faster and faster too so it isn't necessarily a big deal especially since it does have bitmap caching and some display-side rendering capabilities, but it sure would be nice if you could send other formats on the wire.