That's an important thing to note. The problem, however, is that a lot of people seem to be defending XML retroactively, because that's the choice that was made

That's an important thing to note. The problem, however, is that a lot of people seem to be defending XML retroactively, because that's the choice that was made. An appeal to authority, if you will. Realistically, it's completely understandable that XMPP was built on XML, and it made perfect sense at the time - but that should not preclude us from acknowledging that there are serious usability issues with it.