Since when has an inexperienced mob of people ever done the correct thing on the first try?
And, yet, the mob has continued the very fine legacy of those 90s (and 80s and 70s) software developers in pushing software into more places it's never been before. Somehow, it's working, despite the relative ignorance and stupidity of the average developer (myself included) in their understanding of history.
I think I'm being misinterpreted as saying the web is great because it has no flaws. Which is not my intention. The web has many ugly flaws. The web is great because of what it does despite those flaws. And, also, a lot of those flaws come down to inexperience, which we can't cure with technology. It seems likely it can only be cured by making the same dumb mistakes a few times until it becomes collective wisdom that it was a dumb mistake...the kind that gets beaten out of programmers very early during their learning process.
I guess I'm just more optimistic about the web-as-platform than most. I see all its flaws, I just don't think they should result in a death sentence.
But, if you show me something better, I'll gladly participate.