Purpose and Flexibility: APIView serves as the base class for all views in DRF, providing full control over request methods, allowing for highly customized behavior.
Usage Example: An example of using APIView to create a simple endpoint that handles both GET and POST requests, with custom logic for each method.
Features: APIView integrates seamlessly with DRF's authentication and permission classes, supports custom request parsing and response rendering, and allows applying rate limits.
Advantages: APIView offers fine-grained control over the HTTP request/response cycle, supports mix-and-match with DRF's other tools, and suitable for endpoints with custom logic for each HTTP method.