[zahlman]

Long-term compatibility and the avoidance of vendor lock-in.

[eviks]

How can text enable compabitility if you can't be certain how to parse it, and the rules can change any time??? Similarly with vendors - how can they lock you into themselves if you use some widespread open format?

[zahlman]

The point is that every byte of it still means something to you even if you can't "parse" it.