They made it the way it is so that we don't have to go through the whole process of adopting another IP system any time soon. The use of the internet and IP addresses has grown exponentially since the internet first began, and I don't expect the growth to slow down any time soon. Soon enough our pencils will have their own IP addresses.
Also, I'm very certain that pretty much every ISP will take advantage of the IP addresses with many 0's, which will circumvent the potential clunkiness of IPv6 and make addresses a lot smaller than they have the -potential- to be. So your typical IP address will probably be something like 2001::57ab, at least in the first half dozen years or so.
