One big question: These "expectations" you are talking about, who's expectations are those? Might it be possible that those expectations, and those requirement

One big question: These "expectations" you are talking about, who's expectations are those? Might it be possible that those expectations, and those requirements for doing "more", are not coming from the actual users/visitors to the websites - but rather from the companies owning the websites? Because I, as a visitor of HN, come here for the IT news and the nerd stuff. I happily put up with the layout - because the sites actually meets my expectations for content. At the same time, the best, most modern, snazziest website ever... why would I go there (more than once), if there's no content of interest to me? And that - to my experience - holds true for almost ALL visitors. They come for the content, and they put up with the layout. And this table-based layout with spacer gifs right here, imho is a lot easier to put up with, than some desing-heavy website that's perfectly optimized for conversion, engagement and retention rates and whatnot. I think the actual problem is, that when we talk about "expectations" and "requirements" - we talk about what the HOST/SELLER wants - not what is best for the visitor.