Define "file". Read off from the definition of file whether the WWW is just a set of "files".
If you use the UNIX-like definition of file (to say nothing of the Plan 9 definition), which can include dynamically-generated streams such as /dev/random, then sure, the whole web is a set of files. I assume Plan 9 will even serve web sites out of its "filesystem" with the correct poking.
If you use the DOS-like definition of a static file (ignoring CON and a couple of other special cases), then, no, the web is not merely a set of fancy static files on disk. Many, many, many things never have a rest representation on disk as a simple file, even if one could theoretically be manifested at a point in time for some particular web page.
I sort of feel you're trying to conflate these two distinct definitions, and using the fact that the web is a set of stream-files to assert that the web is nothing but a set of disk-files, but that's equivocation.
If you use the UNIX-like definition of file (to say nothing of the Plan 9 definition), which can include dynamically-generated streams such as /dev/random, then sure, the whole web is a set of files. I assume Plan 9 will even serve web sites out of its "filesystem" with the correct poking.
If you use the DOS-like definition of a static file (ignoring CON and a couple of other special cases), then, no, the web is not merely a set of fancy static files on disk. Many, many, many things never have a rest representation on disk as a simple file, even if one could theoretically be manifested at a point in time for some particular web page.
I sort of feel you're trying to conflate these two distinct definitions, and using the fact that the web is a set of stream-files to assert that the web is nothing but a set of disk-files, but that's equivocation.