[Karunamon]

I wouldn't say "broken", but more "stuck in its ways" since it's a huge standard, used by everyone, and as a result, network effects (literally everyone online uses email) keep it from being improved in any way.

It's also hairy, slow, and a bit buggy.

Some concrete issues: https://gist.github.com/mscdex/5329227

Since everyone's using this standard, the only way forward is to either jettison the whole lot and start fresh (network effect means this will never happen), or to wrap it, maintain compatibility, and slowly get your wrapper accepted (which is at least possible in this universe).