Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that's the issue. SOAP isn't some nice standardized language-agnostic API layer. SOAP is .NET/Visual Studio RPC. (Not technically, but in practice, due to its complexity.) And hey, great for you. But a lot of people want APIs to be broadly compatible.
> SOAP isn't some nice standardized language-agnostic API layer. What? Of course it is (well, it's a messaging protocol). Where on earth did you get the idea that it's some Microsoft-only proprietary technology?
No one says it is proprietary technology and yes, it is nominally standardized. It is just so complex that it is impossible to use without heavy tooling support, and this tooling is only really usable in Microsoft's technology.
So it seems that people who use MS ecosystem like SOAP ... while almost everyone else who tried it calls is over-complicated, incomprehensible and "worst dev experience of my whole career"