Except, that’s exactly how html originally started: “oh it’s a nice, machine-readable way of structuring a document, where users can plug in their preferred reader and use it however they like!”

lite.cnn.com just starts that process all over again:

“Lifehack: you can access websites by lite.<domain> and you’ll get a less hostile experience because it’s intended to be accessible.”

“Lifehack: Use the extension LiteBrowse, which automatically goes to the light version of a site and then prettifies it for you.”

‘Oh my! Our analytics say most users are going to the light version! Let’s spice that up and do a UX revamp on it, help improve engagement and get ad clicks.’

‘Oh, wow, someone make a framework to churn out these really profession lite versions of a page, and wow, they’re so eye-popping and let you incorporate JavaScript…’

Earlier thread on this point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20224961