I think nostr is nothing but a large group following rough consensus.

so far we've agreed upon signing messages with secp256k1, this is fundamental.

Next we agreed upon the structure of our messages, note the signatures still stand even if our agreement on the signatures broke.

Next we agreed upon relaying these messages through websockets over to relays, note the structure and signature still work even if we chose to ignore the relaying mechanism.

I think it is this resilience the fact that I would still know its calle even if you ignored everything else and signed your message on paper and sent it through a peacock.

This is what makes nostr special, we agree upon stuff that works. Thats all that matters. That it works.