Yes, it is very limited, indeed. However, W3C is not a single group. Specs are developed (and proposed) mostly by charters or separate working groups. They are

Yes, it is very limited, indeed. However, W3C is not a single group. Specs are developed (and proposed) mostly by charters or separate working groups. They are developed without "strict" control by W3C. This means that there are lots of specs being built in parallel[1], which means that having people develop the Clipboard API standard won't imply less (or more) development on the textarea-related standard... [1] Some of them even collide, while others are designed to serve specific (corporative) interests.