XML might have been simpler if the designers would have started from scratch. SGML people complain that the W3C doesn't look enough at what they've already done, but perhaps they looked too much. The platform-specific RPC mechanisms were also much more complex. I think it's because only the simple solutions survive in the jungle of all those different systems on the web. It looks like developers only choose the simple solutions when they have to.
Developers are afraid of simple code.
In the mean time they make everything so complex that they don't have time to optimize their code. Netscape Revamps My Netscape . Netscape today turned off customized content on My Netscape. That probably explaines why registering my RSS news feed didn't work. AOL holds the most power in the browser war, as its 30 million users comprise the world's largest online service.