I see it as a variation on http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html. What TimBL had in mind would have been a monumentally more powerful trove of information, but our society doesn't want one of those very badly, so it rewarded the people who were taking shortcuts and making shiny toys rather than contributing to that. (And I'm about as guilty as anyone else of doing what pays.)

I think that was the result of Mosaic and later Netscape, as well as David Siegel.