MCP Isn't a Model Feature. It's a Power Outlet for Your Tools.

A tech lead pings you on Slack: "we should move our Claude integrations to MCP."

You ask what they have today. Four custom tools wired via function calling, running in production for the past eight months. You ask what's broken.

"Nothing. But MCP is the standard now."

Same trap as the Agent SDK. The phrase "it's the standard" hides the fact that nobody in the room has articulated what MCP is supposed to fix. And when you don't know what you're fixing, you migrate for nothing.

MCP doesn't replace function calling. It standardizes how your tools are exposed, not how they're called.