I think this thread has gotten quite deep without anyone engaging with my original point: capacity-varying links are really only a thing right next to the user, and even actual drops are mostly next to the user too. I've explained why within Google user-facing packets rarely drop and suggested other content providers have similar mechanisms.

I said this:

> the entire network is oversubscribed...and running out of capacity regularly in practice? No way.

and you took that to mean "the network is not oversubscribed"? and this is what you're focusing on? No, the "...and" was the important part. Forget the word oversubscribed. It's a word you introduced to the conversation, and it's a distraction. I don't care about the theoretical potential for congestion; I care about where congestion mostly happens in practice.