[dragonwriter]

> One of the most important is that open-source-but-proprietary protocols, if they catch on, end up devolving into bug-for-bug compatibility

I think there is a distinction to be made between closed spec protocols and protocols developed prior to being submitting for standardization; while its hard to tell them apart prior to the latter actually being submitted for standardization outside of potentially misleading forward-looking statements of intent, the latter is a reasonable way of cleaning up something and getting some solid real-world feedback and proving utility before submitting something as the basis for standards work while the former carries the problem you describe.