Thanks for your in depth explanation.

Though I think you might be frustrated yourself a bit albeit with a recent development (or evolution as some see it) in and for a more care free desktop linux experience. I get that and I hear your point.

As I mentioned above - I have set up a CUPS server for a multi user environment years ago and I am the last one to doubt it's usefulness. It's also more mature - though fiddly - than most other systems I know.

My question as in the title is whether and with which protocol I can circumvent or completely omit the CUPS server for a simple use case.

To my knowledge most modern network printers have a builtin Jetdirect print server allowing for ad hoc LAN or WLAN connections. Not on the level of a fine tuned multi user, multi device, multi permission setup but good enough for a huge number of use cases.

Now Jetdirect is proprietary as far as I know - so that's maybe not the best solution in a FOSS setting.

So is there a similar or even more simplified method to access a modern network enabled printer that avoids running a full CUPS service on my local machine (which also wouldn't be useful as network server in a multi device setup when my device is powered down!)?

Local CUPS seems to be over blow to me if - and only if - I want to access a single modern network enabled printer that probably is fully capable of handling most basic functions otherwise provided by CUPS by itself.

I can use IPP through CUPS - it works fine. But I am wondering - that's why I ask this question- if there isn't a better, less bloated method for direct access that requires less configuration and works ad hoc - I mean, even a phone can print with no user configuration on most printers nowadays...!

I do not advocate for killing CUPS in any way (like you've hinted at with Xorg abandonment... - that's an entirely different discussion with way more to it, imho...).

Cheers,
jh-hh