Please for all that is good clarify/remove this old example:

// if you don't want to use DNS (and reduce your sketch size)
// use the numeric IP instead of the name for the server:
IPAddress server(74,125,232,128);  // numeric IP for Google (no DNS)

This simply hasn't worked for years...

After changing the host request header accordingly to:

client.println("Host: 74.125.232.128");

No response will be given back by the server.

I also tried using a different Google IP (142.250.179.174) and no response will be sent back.

People (like me) who create a temporary server with simply self-signed SSL certificates and no domain name for demo purposes will be met with more work than if we were to have actually gotten a real certificate + domain.

Other people seem to have had similar problems using different WiFi libraries for years: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/sslclient-with-static-ip-not-working/910236/3