Yes, and the ideal of "semantic HTML" might even point at a deep misunderstanding of what's required for a content-delivery standard. Consider how the MP3 stand

Yes, and the ideal of "semantic HTML" might even point at a deep misunderstanding of what's required for a content-delivery standard. Consider how the MP3 standards were created: by specifying a decoder from bits and bytes to sound, so that we can have devices that "play" content many years from now. WHATWG's "Living Standard" thing and the ongoing sugaring of JavaScript syntax and other added complexity is completely antithetical to this. > have left me suspicious of any tech idea proclaimed with religious overtones If for nothing else, that's a valuable lesson learned in it's own right :)