I feel you both are right. The specs for web-related technologies become more and more bloated everyday, and the barrier to entry is already too high (even for

I feel you both are right. The specs for web-related technologies become more and more bloated everyday, and the barrier to entry is already too high (even for a software monster such as Microsoft!). From this point of view, it can be seen as obstructing the open web. However, there should be no harm in adding optional specs for the interested parties, especially for niche uses. So this actually favors open web as it's better to have open standards rather than ad-hoc custom solutions.