Exactly this. HTML5 is mostly just a collection of standards designed to formalize optimizations and techniques that people have been kludging around for a long

Exactly this. HTML5 is mostly just a collection of standards designed to formalize optimizations and techniques that people have been kludging around for a long while. There are exceptions, but it's not a magical new technology that's going to revolutionize the web and make me breakfast in the morning. That said, developers would do well to stay on top of emerging technologies, both for technical and resume-related reasons.