[GHFigs]

You're probably confusing it with Theora, which was actually part of the spec for a while but was removed around last June for the reasons you mention. That's when the public shitstorms started. I was an avid reader of what WHAT-WG list around the time leading up to that and I never recall anybody seriously proposing H.264 be put into the spec.

[lanaer]

Ah ok. I didn't learn of the issue until after Theora was removed, so all I saw were the reasons why neither H.264 nor Theora were in the spec (and the impression that at least one of those had been considered for it).