Constraint-based layouts where proposed to w3c in 1999. They were rejected because people thought they would be too resource-intensive for the time. Don't forg

Constraint-based layouts where proposed to w3c in 1999. They were rejected because people thought they would be too resource-intensive for the time. Don't forget, the core of HTML and CSS until this day basically relies on "we can lay everything and display it in a single pass". Double pass (for tables) didn't appear in standards until 2001 if I remember correctly (but won't be able to find). And then you have the IE-era draught of no features.