It's mind boggling how far one can torture the concept of markup documents to eventually arrive at something like this... just so users don't have to install software.
https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...
Convenience is the most powerful force in humanity.
A lot of natural fibers need a lot of strength to be spun into finer threads and we didn't really have that on a large scale until the 1800s.
Plus distribution was much harder so in many remote parts were stuck with whatever they made locally, which was most likely subpar even for their times.
Cotton tech in the 1800s really revolutionized clothing.
Efforts like Tim Berners-Lee's Solid seem like a great first step. There's also a variety of Mastodon clients one can run as PWAs, which both is an example but also a bit of a counter-examples: the page can dial anywhere! But then that Fediverse server intermediates & connects you out to the world. RSS readers too; dialing home to connect with the world. Instead we could perhaps have a client that reaches out directly. Then that activity of reading & browsing, keeping track of favorites and what not: that would have to be sent home or otherwise saved.