Of course you don't need it technologically speaking. Between DNS and SSL and stuff like openAPI, HTTP comes with a lot of baggage that is redundant when used on the back end.

My point is that it's not a technology problem in the first place. It's a problem of clashing senses of style and taste. It's a culture problem. If you need to dress up your culture problem fix with a technology explanation, http is the way to go because it's widely understood and so boring that nobody is going to ask you to explain it in too great of detail.