It violates elementary, ABC, read-it-in-Rousseau principles of legitimate state operation if government documents of any kind whatsoever are in a proprietary format. This is why EU courts forced .docx on Microsoft. .doc files were found to be simply invalid binary blobs with no meaning whatsoever in a democracy. I dimly remember a US court - maybe Minnesota? - tending to the same.

It was only the magical atmosphere in which Microsoft and ‘tech’ must succeed that made this flat out obvious conclusion invisible.

I remember beginning writing a pandoc writer the minute it happened but some bright young brain beat me to it.

The XML if I remember, had manifold curiosa probably meant to impede other implementations, but it was real.

My impression is that his complaints, which echo those of the doc period in detail, arise from users’ failure to adopt best practices.