As to the final victory statements, I have to dispute that based on the contracts on my desk present and past that require SOAP and WS*. For whatever balance of perceptions exists among developers, in the business community buying and selling systems, REST is seldom mentioned if at all.   One might attribute it to the fact that anything that requires more than a few lines of citation material to procure drops off the radar.   On the other hand, one might attribute it to the fact that ubiquitous commercial development platforms support it so it never has to be detailed.

If we can build a faster simpler system, we do that.  If what they require doesn't make sense, we ask for exceptions.   If they don't say anything, we choose.  If there is a part of this where the developer perceptions have the most impact, it is in that third category.

len