I think the point the parent reply is trying to make is not that you cannot follow good practices with REST and that you somehow magically get it with GraphQL. I think their point is that GraphQL makes it much easier for devs to follow good practices and with less resistance.
You can do a lot of the things that Graphql does bu just a regular old JSON HTTP API. It's just not automatic and you will have to choose your own conventions
> I have seen many people try to solve the "too many requests" problem by slowing expanding rest responses into "god" objects.
Fair point.
But I ask my question again, differently worded: how does Graphql solve this? Why does GraphQL solve "many requests" and why can't you solve or avoid this in REST.
GQL solves this problem elegantly by allowing you to specify the data that you need in a single request.
That is just one example, there are many many others that you can google if you are actually interested.