The reason the early public WWW is so ridiculous is that it was an entirely new technology and thus we embraced its difference. The closest equivalent to a webp

The reason the early public WWW is so ridiculous is that it was an entirely new technology and thus we embraced its difference. The closest equivalent to a webpage was a physical printed page and the most obvious thing a webpage can do that printed pages can't is having animations. It's also easy to forget that while some works of art have endured over thousands or tens of thousands of years, most art likely hasn't. The ancient art we have today is like a Best Of album -- it leaves out all the works that were instantly forgotten or just not good enough and creates the impression that everything was better back then.