I think it is fair to say TBL didn't come up with a perfect design, and he never set out to. He solved a simpler problem than the ones we have now, and that's

I think it is fair to say TBL didn't come up with a perfect design, and he never set out to. He solved a simpler problem than the ones we have now, and that's just fine. He might be the last person to imagine HTML would have continued on with so much of its original design intact.