I think the author is missing out on what you mentioned, specifically that we're attempting to bridge the gap between size and complexity, and new and stable.

As someone who is constantly not using the features I'm learning about due to IE7/8, I mess with things that definitely won't work on anything other than Chrome Canary. Why? Because it's a fun and brave new frontier.

I really think you can't complain about the web being NOT perfect. It's full of dinosaurs and people are still running on oil. And besides, this newfangled green revolution has a ton of kinks we need to take care of before we can make the switch.

Transitional. The web is in a state of flux always.