Standards?

Mark Pilgrim writes in Semantic obsolescence about the new XHtML 2.0 specs and how they have created a dead-end for those of us using th standards (well, I’m not doing a very good job on this site, but I have tried to on others). I need more time to read what he’s written and understand the issues, but on the face of it I think he is justified in his anger. At the same time, I would like to see the reasons for the decisions that were made, to understand the thought process that lead the committee to where they are now.