[luhn]

I don't understand your argument. Yes, web programming has lots of warts and subtle behaviors and inconsistencies. So shouldn't we jump on a chance to remove a small part of that from our day-to-day development? OP isn't advocating ignorance of the spec, just a way not to need to reason with it as often.

[hhsnopek]

No argument, just a comment that displays my disapproval of not fully complying with the spec before blaming it.

[MaulingMonkey]

How is anyone not complying with the spec by not micro-optimizing away legal-but-redundant tags?