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HTML/CSS as machine code is a horribly flawed metaphor. Machine code is at the "absolutely no abstractions" level; it's what the computer executes. HTML/CSS, on the other hand, are massively abstracted declarative languages. It describes the data you want to display, and some basic style information. Java -> HTML/CSS/JavaScript is actually compiling up in many, if not most, cases.

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It's not about how exact it is rather how portable it is. HTML/CSS is NOT portable across all browsers so it's a bad level to work at.

HTML/CSS is portable across all browsers, but you aren't guaranteed absolute control over the final rendering. This is by design, and there are a lot of good reasons for it. Most of these abstraction layers sacrifice all of that so you can get more control on the 2 or 3 supported browsers instead of the giant universe of alternate user agents.

CSS is not supported by all browsers.

If you use HTML 1.0 you can render something on most (but not all) browsers. EX: text only browsers will not show you imgs. And yes, these are still in use by the blind community.

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