That's only one distinct component. HTML vs XHTML was also a distinct aspect (syntax ambiguity was a lesser problem than larger ambiguity. The WHATWG fiasco is IMO more important to the point that low quality half baked new features is not an accident but a goal.)

XHTML reveals though that HTML won on ambiguity over pedantic error identification. The adopters it needed rallied against anything that would tell them what they should do from day 1 to unambiguously say what they mean. Starting with a fundamentally flawed demo, blog, shop that ropes in some commitment and gradually fixing things on the in-for-a-dime-in-for-a-dollar investor is basically the whole business model of most fields if you exclude exchanges between the top 1-10% of buyers and sellers, which have an entirely different structure.

Even things like Facebook are an example of the manure first model. I wouldn't be stupid enough to let Zuckerberg plan lunch and as an investor I'm about as savvy as someone who bet against HTML. A billion flies can't be wrong as the saying goes.