So it seems like the primary use of IP, as you describe, is to define a way to narrow the search to sub address groups so as to not require enumerating every address in the scheme.
Still, there's doesn't seem to be any reason you couldn't just say "device 1 gets MAC 00:00:00:00:00:01" and "device 2 gets 00:00:00:00:00:02" and the gateway controller gets :::00 and there's a special address on :::FF that can be used to talk to everyone...
Is that it? Is that all there is to IP? A loose pattern for reducing search scope, a couple reserved addresses for special cases, and a balance between address bitsize and total number of unique addresses (without requiring additional routing complexity)?
Still, there's doesn't seem to be any reason you couldn't just say "device 1 gets MAC 00:00:00:00:00:01" and "device 2 gets 00:00:00:00:00:02" and the gateway controller gets :::00 and there's a special address on :::FF that can be used to talk to everyone...
Is that it? Is that all there is to IP? A loose pattern for reducing search scope, a couple reserved addresses for special cases, and a balance between address bitsize and total number of unique addresses (without requiring additional routing complexity)?
It all seems so... simple