Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I was thinking at a more abstract level:

> because web pages are extremely parameterized over different content, client sizes and types, user preferences, and data

You've taken this as a given. Why does it have to be like that? If we're defining the standards, we can make the web whatever we want it to be. And I think if your explanation of why it is complicated is the above (and I think that's only a small part of why it is such a mess), then let's modify some of those assumptions to make it easier to simplify.

That, and also needs beyond the initial creation: Adding new types of content, modifying things without having to start from scratch, being easy to diff for change reviews and for merge-conflict resolution, supporting search engine crawlers, deep links, permanent links, interacting well with the back button. And that's without getting into the cases in which you have content that updates in real time, user content, the need to support offline mode, or any of the things that blur the website / application line.