Warning: Rant Ahead
I agree with the stupidity argument if you mean that having monstrously large web engines as a basis for a browser, just for compatibility reasons, is the greatest stupidity of the worldwide web. Modularity would have been better served as an engine made up of sub-libraries.
Unfortunately, starting over is not an option any more. When Mozilla tried to replace Firefox with Servo, their new and shiny Rust based browser, they found that even they couldn’t do it. Finally they ended up turning the code hosting and maintenance over to Red Hat. They are still trying to incorporate Servo’s code into Firefox over time using C++ bindings to Rust.
Once a Blink-based monoculture is established we fall into the same trap as we almost fell into with Micro$oft Windows in the 90’s. The only difference would be that Web Apps based on the Blink engine will not have the advantage of antitrust hearings to try to bust up the monopoly. Blink is maintained by Alphabet, sure, but isn’t the Blink source code an open-source licensed project? Just put a non-profit foundation packed with industry insiders as directors and trustees and the big tech trifecta of Microsoft, Apple and the Linux community will be complete in their internet dominance. Blink just can’t be a Haiku solution for the web.
A Way Out
While WebPositive is the current solution because it can try to piggy-back on WebKit2’s existing code base, we need another way out for the industry, and Haiku in particular.
A transition from Web standards to simpler ones could include dedicated internet applications. Do you remember when IRC clients weren’t written in JavaScript? When bulletin boards ran in text-based terminals? When NNTP clients on Usenet were many times more responsive than forums like this one? Those functions were well served independently of the browser.
My thinking is that modularity can make a comeback if we quit arguing about alternatives to WebPositive and start making alternatives to the protocols that require its use. Of course we’ll need to cherry-pick from among the existing protocols to find ones that work well.
Started a new thread for related discussion.