When the standards are widely implemented those who are already familiar with them will have a head start.
Unless some people push things forward they will forever stay the same. We don't all have to move in lock-step, that kind of thinking leads to watered down systems and is a recipe for stagnation.
There's also graceful degradation and progressive enhancement, where you can serve the best supported content to each client based on their capabilities. So you can use the new shiny stuff if supported but nobody is left out in the cold entirely. HTML5 video is a good example of this.
One last point. Other browser devs may see these demos and think "hey that's cool! we should be able to do that too", leading to quicker uptake of new standards.
Unless some people push things forward they will forever stay the same. We don't all have to move in lock-step, that kind of thinking leads to watered down systems and is a recipe for stagnation.
There's also graceful degradation and progressive enhancement, where you can serve the best supported content to each client based on their capabilities. So you can use the new shiny stuff if supported but nobody is left out in the cold entirely. HTML5 video is a good example of this.
One last point. Other browser devs may see these demos and think "hey that's cool! we should be able to do that too", leading to quicker uptake of new standards.