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> It conveys exactly what the author or publisher intended.

How many authors intended to break copy and paste of their data?

I don’t have the data to answer your question. But I’d like to point out that it has little to do with my assertions. Note in particular the word “conveys”.

The word doesn't help without specifying the set of intents you meant.

But in general that would also be a mistaken post-hoc rationalization of the state of an ecosystem.

The "author's intent" could just be "I just want to fit the requirement". And the publisher's intent could just be "I don't want to change". None of which is about the deficiency of alternative formats re. "conveying [supposedly design] intent"

And PDF is an abomination because of the awful way it implements the "intent preservation"

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