As I understood it, HTML5 was specifically about getting away from the design-by-committee mode that was causing problems in XHTML. It was a group of people that got together and said, "Okay, what are peole actually doing right now, that is what needs to be documented in the standard." They did not want a perscriptive standard, but rather, a descriptive one.
And it's not like they wanted a descriptive standard, it's that they knew a prescriptive one would not fly and would just be completely ignored due to the conflicting interests of the half-dozen actors.
A standard everybody ignores is utterly pointless.
Am I wrong about this?