Close your Paypal account. While you're at it close your Venmo account.

I mean, isn't this less about how good curl is and more about how HTTP/S is likely the most popular and most invested-in protocol in the history of the networked communication?

What a cynical response - because HTTP is the the most popular and invested protocol, means there are a ton of tools available. Yet, because curl is quite good at it's job, it's often picked

The engineers at NASA, JPL, et al are could implement HTTP/S client in their sleep with their hands tied behind their backs.

That they're fine with a product that's just "off the shelf" speaks volumes about curl.