MCP Looks Like Repackaged Libraries

The critique is directionally right about one thing: a lot of MCP servers are thin wrappers around APIs that already existed, so the ecosystem can feel like documentation theater with extra steps.

• –MCP’s real value is less “new capability” than standardization: one protocol for tool discovery, schemas, and cross-vendor agent access
• –The essay is strongest when it argues for better docs, typed examples, and function-level search, because most tool pain is still discoverability and usability
• –It overstates the case when it reduces MCP to libraries alone; stateful, multi-step agent workflows and safety boundaries are not solved by docstrings
• –The likely outcome is a split stack: well-documented libraries and SDKs underneath, with MCP as the interchange layer on top
• –For builders, the practical move is to keep MCP usage narrow and only expose high-value tools, not mirror every package function