"It sounds like to be save one should only use <div> and <span> tags, style them with CSS and forget about semantics?" Yeah exactly. "It is obvious to me that

"It sounds like to be save one should only use <div> and <span> tags, style them with CSS and forget about semantics?" Yeah exactly. "It is obvious to me that this is the wrong approach." Semantic HTML essentially boils down to "You should because you should." "I said he should use appropriate HTML5 tags." To what practical benefit aside from personal aesthetic preference? "there is no gain in just using <div> for everything" The gain is not having to memorize or reference which semantic tag goes where, nor having to go back and refactor or maintain semantic tags.