I think their point is that open standards are good for user experience. Can you imagine if each browser implemented their own hypertext format instead of html?

I think their point is that open standards are good for user experience. Can you imagine if each browser implemented their own hypertext format instead of html? Or Stylesheet language beside css? Or they used their own application protocol instead of http? Or if email wasn't federated; Can you imagine not being able to send emails between networks, so nodamage@gmail.com couldn't email smadge@myuniversity.edu? No matter how good the user experience of these nonstandard protocols and formats were, the user would suffer.