How does new browser feature X prevent a developer from doing any of these things?
> Being forced to work around IE6’s issues required quite a bit of creativity, and although not every solution stood the test of time (most libraries and frameworks from that era, for instance), it still made the creative juices flow.
'Tools' are bad except when they are used to work around stagnant browsers, I guess?
How does new browser feature X prevent a developer from doing any of these things?
A moratorium on new features probably wouldn't help, but the reality is that web developers are focusing on new shiny browser features that allow for deeper native integration, rather than on the core elements of the web that work and carry greater usability gains, like offline support.
Maybe the issue is just educating web developers about what's available, and the non-obvious side-effects using feature X.
Here's what I'd like to see: organize a site like caniuse not by feature, but by tiers of support in the entire population of installed browsers. Something like:
Supported by 99.99% of user-agents: image tags, ... Supported by 95% of user-agents: XHR, ...
(I'm making those numbers up).
Not to mention that the web sets its own expectations. If everyone uses stupid modal popups, your clients will expect you to use stupid modal popups.