The auto-reflow of HTML often puts things to weird places. I'm sure it can be done properly as well, but auto-converting a PDF or LaTeX document to HTML results

The auto-reflow of HTML often puts things to weird places. I'm sure it can be done properly as well, but auto-converting a PDF or LaTeX document to HTML results in crappy layout. I always download the PDF when given the option, because the the actual authors spent a lot of time to make sure everything is at the right position and everything looks as intended. Sure if the culture changed and scientists now learned web dev instead of LaTeX and put in the same effort into producing production quality, polished HTML instead of PDF, it may work as well. But scientists need to send LaTeX and PDF to journals and conferences, so you can't expect them to put in double effort. Also, making sure that things look good in all browsers is just a way bigger job than making sure a single PDF looks as it should.