The point is that you shouldn't make changes to the spec that don't result in changes to the UX, just because you feel that the data structure is cleaner. The reason is that making such a change means there is now new development work that needs to be done in existing apps to support your new spec.
You keep saying, "it will take devs 5 minutes," but the point is that it should take them *zero* time wherever possible. Unless there is community agreement that the structures/protocol should be changed in a manner that isn't backwards-compatible, you shouldn't make such changes, because such changes just cause the app ecosystem to become needlessly fractured.