I think it's like this: Håkon/Bert did aim a bit high with the initial design of CSS. It was harder to understand and internalize than HTML. This hindered adop

I think it's like this: Håkon/Bert did aim a bit high with the initial design of CSS. It was harder to understand and internalize than HTML. This hindered adoption. Then over the years the overall complexity of the web stack (and its' Javascript-based "derivatives") grew, and suddenly CSS is no longer so complex - in comparison.