I wonder if everyone in this thread is willfully missing the point, or else if we're just so deep into the brainwashing of the modern web that they can no longer see the surface.
I’m just not convinced that HTML and especially HTTP are “rotten to the core”. You can make http://motherfuckingwebsite.com and the markup is all very clean.
the markup might be clean but it's pretty ugly and network inefficient because it's full of boilerplate that is only required because html also supports 1000 times more nonsense than this site uses, so you have to type <p></p> to render every line of that text, or <a href=""></a> to just render a link. you need to do <h></h> for headings. if all you want to do in your content is those things, that markup is ridiculous.
> meaning the net effect is just to make browsers more complicated.
Maybe it would, slightly. But would it make the browser anymore complicated then the unessential features that Firefox has in its default build right now?
Pocket integration, FF Sync, some screenshot function?
The web is so broken that my Firefox even has some Protection Dashboard thing (about:protections). Not that I've ever used or noticed it before.