Is this common? I think we'd want to discourage use of customrequest.

Yes we do. Using the approach shown here won't work if there's a redirect since FOLLOWLOCATION and CUSTOMREQUEST doesn't really go well together...

@jay Many REST apis require use PUT with a little json/text payload. For example this is what I am working on now, it has many such examples: https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/rest/overview/endpoints-available-for-github-apps

Using PUT to perform a file-upload is actually very rare in practice, I think most users are more interested in the former.

@jeroen The point isn't really what the PUT is used for, it is rather the inherent problems with using customrequest. Primarily the fact that it often breaks redirect-following. I will add a comment to the example addressing that.