The drama attached to "despised" is not true however, and the features lacking, ie. Editing in a browser or "who has linked to my page" were not of overwhelming concern.
The author is simply attributing features which seem personally important to them/journalists, as the most pressing concerns of the people making/using the web at the time (early 90s)
I was on Usenet virtually every day keeping an eye on discussions on SGML vs HTML, when the web was in its infancy.
Certainly consensus was not always smooth and non-controversial. But to say anyone (who wasn't simply trolling) despised HTML, let alone the "èlite", is utter nonsense.
The author is simply attributing features which seem personally important to them/journalists, as the most pressing concerns of the people making/using the web at the time (early 90s)
I was on Usenet virtually every day keeping an eye on discussions on SGML vs HTML, when the web was in its infancy.
Certainly consensus was not always smooth and non-controversial. But to say anyone (who wasn't simply trolling) despised HTML, let alone the "èlite", is utter nonsense.