> Why isn’t IPv6 more popular? ... and an arguably overly complex design.
I really don't know where this ridiculous claim comes from. Yes, IPv6 addresses look more complicated but various other things about the protocol are drastically simplified — no more on-path fragmentation, simpler header formats and fewer required header fields, correctly implemented link-local scopes, previously separate ICMP+ARP+IGMP protocols consolidated into ICMPv6 (which handles neighbour discovery, router advertisements, path MTU discovery and multicast group membership amongst others), no more broadcast, and in many cases clients will quite happily get along without DHCP. If anything, it is considerably less complex.
I really don't know where this ridiculous claim comes from. Yes, IPv6 addresses look more complicated but various other things about the protocol are drastically simplified — no more on-path fragmentation, simpler header formats and fewer required header fields, correctly implemented link-local scopes, previously separate ICMP+ARP+IGMP protocols consolidated into ICMPv6 (which handles neighbour discovery, router advertisements, path MTU discovery and multicast group membership amongst others), no more broadcast, and in many cases clients will quite happily get along without DHCP. If anything, it is considerably less complex.