Here's the thing though: Managed switches are often configured like routers. And even dumb switches have "dynamic route discovery" if we want to call it that.
It would be nice if this could be negotiated away to get a pure IP6 link. If an intermediate link doesn't support that, legacy addressing could still be used. I'm not saying we don't need NDP, just that it would be nice if it could eventually be phased out.
If you're configuring something like a router then it's a router. It may be a crap router but if it routes it's still a router.
> It would be nice if this could be negotiated away to get a pure IP6 link.
Then you'd need WiredIPv6, WirelessIPv6, 4GIPv6, 5GIPv6... layer 2 provides the ability for an abstracted physical layer to transport an abstracted network layer. Remove it and any time the physical layer changes the network layer needs to as well as each of these have unique headers, formats, and data-link capabilities (not all support broadcast for example!).
Every abstraction layer is actively used today, remove it and there is a cost.
It would be nice if this could be negotiated away to get a pure IP6 link. If an intermediate link doesn't support that, legacy addressing could still be used. I'm not saying we don't need NDP, just that it would be nice if it could eventually be phased out.