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the reason for the new elements isn't to benefit users reading the page, it is to benefit programs reading the page.

the google bot, and many other crawlers, parsers etc. already make use of them.

There are ways around breaking older browsers - https://www.google.com/search?q=html5shiv

However, I agree with your point(s).

The reason for using the "fancy" new elements is quite clear! It makes the code more readable and easy to understand.

And as for the part where we "might" break the page in old browsers. I would like to pose a questions.

"Aren't we all working towards a developed future?"