Earlier quoted context omitted.
Authentication has to be done again over websockets - on every connect and reconnect. That means it is going to make the app resource hungry. Right, except that WebSockets only connect once in normal operation. You'd be surprised how resource hungry WebSockets aren't when compared to constant HTTP connections. Waiting 2.5 seconds for messages to arrive to all clients feels a little imperfect.
I live in a country where latency for websockets is 300-400ms for most hosting services (US/Europe). And the most common internet connection speed 512kbps. Websockets disconnects for me frequently. So during reconnection, I'll have to reauth in my case.
Why do you have to reauth? Websockets can carry cookies or query strings just like rest. How else do you prevent the need to reauth on every http query?