Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I was thinking at a more abstract level: > because web pages are extremely parameterized over different content, client sizes

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I was thinking at a more abstract level: > because web pages are extremely parameterized over different content, client sizes and types, user preferences, and data You've taken this as a given. Why does it have to be like that? If we're defining the standards, we can make the web whatever we want it to be. And I think if your explanation of why it is complicated is the above (and I think that's only a small part of why it is such a mess), then let's modify some of those assumptions to make it easier to simplify.