the readability of many modern pages is considerably improved over plain text.
The readability of the page is supposed to be the responsibility of the browser, not the page.
The intent of the "founding fathers" isn't really applicable anymore.
Oh, is that so? Last I checked, people frequently install browser plugins just to turn modern pages back into single-column plain text pages.
This page is no exception, looks way better in readability than it does by default. The main issues are the 100% width and the font/size.
Sure, but the font and size are exactly what you are free to control as you please with your browser.
My Readability plugin and I disagree with you.
I'd be all for a CSS-less minimal page style except for the fact that it comes with no margins and produces unreadably long lines on my browser window that's full-screen most of the time.
Yes! Some more color or graphics are okay, but just the minimal, please thank you.