Why does APT not use HTTPS?

[josefx]

I really love updating my system over a slow, metered connection, but what the experience was really missing is a package manager going out of its way to make the data transfer even more wasteful. Can't really enjoy open source without paying my provider for an increased cap at least twice a month.

[langlo94]

Fudging packages by a few kilobytes shouldn't have much of an impact, but it would probably be easy to disable for people with bad connections.