MCP Is Last-Mile Plumbing

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is best understood as last-mile plumbing — the final connector that lets an LLM reach a capability — not a replacement for foundational API infrastructure. Using a water system analogy: data is the reservoir, business logic is the treatment plant, REST/GraphQL APIs are the water mains, and MCP is the last few feet of pipe to the faucet. Building MCP servers without underlying real APIs means creating a single-consumer surface with no versioning, no reuse, and no governance story. The right approach is to build proper, versioned, documented APIs first, then layer a thin MCP server on top. This way governance is inherited from upstream OpenAPI contracts, and when the current agent trend fades, the real infrastructure remains intact and a new connector can be wired in quickly.