REST and the Servlet 3 Specification

I've been going through the Java Servlet 3 specification, and I just came across this gem at the start of the chapter on Sessions:

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is by design a stateless protocol. To build effective Web applications, it is imperative that requests from a particular client be associated with each other. [...] This specification defines a simple HttpSession interface that allows a servlet container to use any of several approaches to track a user’s session [...]

I don't think the spec authors have been adequately exposed to the REST philosophy, or they wouldn't be talking so casually about how "imperative" sessions are to build "effective" Web applications. A few years ago, I would have read this without batting an eyelid. Now, I had to keep myself from falling off my chair in shock. One would think spec writers of advanced technology would know a bit better. At the very least, they could have written something like this:

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is by design a stateless protocol, and it is strongly recommended that Web applications be built in a stateless manner to be effective, with all state management delegated to the persistence tier. If, for legacy or other reasons, it is unavoidable to maintain in-memory state in a web application, the servlet specification defines a simple HttpSession interface that provides a relatively painless way to manage it. Application developers should however be aware of the severe scalability and recoverability issues that will accompany the use of this feature.

There! Now I feel much better.