[Theodores]

There was a lot wrong with HTML and it only got a layout engine two years ago. People learned all the hacks, starting with table layouts, the the responsive div soup and then the frameworks to make it easier to make more div soup, not forgetting the build tools. There is sunk cost in this learning and a visual design process that goes with it. Anyone can make something complex.

To give that up and to take a content first approach with no visual mockups and semantic HTML is a bit too much to give up when you have teams built around the process. A younger generation starting from scratch can avoid all of this. Or they can just use Squarespace with the status quo continuing a lot longer.

The thing is that there are universities and colleges that do teach basic HTML. This will be taught with the modern HTML5 elements not too soon. When people who learn this stuff then get to do real projects they might baulk at using frameworks and libraries that are another thing to learn that is a bit unnecessary as they can achieve their design goals with what they already know.

This is 'intrinsic web design', using the inherent built in properties of the browser, keeping it simple and binning the frameworks, polyfills, libraries and visual mockup tools.