Other anecdotal experiences with Google and their specific attitude towards user/developer needs:

- Stable Array.sort (2008 – 2018): Of course it doesn't have to be stable, spec does not dictate it right now, it is good for performance, and some other browser even started to do this like we do: http://crbug.com/v8/90 . - Users don't userstyle (2015– ) Of course we absolutely can an will remove this feature from the core, despite it is mandated by several specifications: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=347016 . - SMIL murder attempt was addressed in the OP article (I think they keep similar sentiment towards MathML either) but luckily was eventually retracted. I guess/hope this XSLT will have similar "storm in the teacup" trajectory.