Yep. The fact that XHTML lost to HTML is all the proof I ever needed of this. XHTML wasn't perfect, but it sure as hell was easier to process than HTML. I guess this is the new Embrace, Extend, Extinguish: Embrace, Expand, Monopolize. Basically make it too complex for anyone to compete.
An example would be Chrome: why would anyone choose to run the All-Seeing Eye edition from Google when it's F/LOSS and de-Googled alternatives exist? Because modifying it is complex and expensive, testing it is complex and expensive, keeping up with changes is complex and expensive (Microsoft basically owned the desktop because of introducing changes so fast the desktop application competition was always spending a significant amount of their budget just supporting the latest change), distributing modified versions quickly and reliably is expensive and complex, getting the community to agree on which anti-features to remove is impossible, and marketing it to end users is expensive. Thus we end up with obviously user hostile open source software, which would be impossible with simpler software.
An example would be Chrome: why would anyone choose to run the All-Seeing Eye edition from Google when it's F/LOSS and de-Googled alternatives exist? Because modifying it is complex and expensive, testing it is complex and expensive, keeping up with changes is complex and expensive (Microsoft basically owned the desktop because of introducing changes so fast the desktop application competition was always spending a significant amount of their budget just supporting the latest change), distributing modified versions quickly and reliably is expensive and complex, getting the community to agree on which anti-features to remove is impossible, and marketing it to end users is expensive. Thus we end up with obviously user hostile open source software, which would be impossible with simpler software.