Nonsense. Web standards are supposed to be de jure, not de facto.
Once upon a time Microsoft had 90% of the browser’s market. We created web standards in order to prevent monopolies, such as the former IExplorer, from holding the market hostage. That’s the whole reason behind web standards.
And yes, they matter even with an IExplorer that has 90% market share, because governments can and do enforce adherence. That’s also the reason for why Microsoft came up with OOXML, ODF being a threat even with a tiny market share.
Web standards are supposed to be de jure, not de facto.
HTML5, in large part, was created to do exactly the opposite -- formally set down in writing all the de facto quirks of HTML as actually used, parsed and rendered in the real world, instead of continuing to prescribe behaviors which didn't match observed reality.
For the most part it was documenting the common subset of how the browsers actually worked. Only one browser implemented ActiveX or ever wanted to so it isn't in the spec.
Once upon a time Microsoft had 90% of the browser’s market. We created web standards in order to prevent monopolies, such as the former IExplorer, from holding the market hostage. That’s the whole reason behind web standards.
And yes, they matter even with an IExplorer that has 90% market share, because governments can and do enforce adherence. That’s also the reason for why Microsoft came up with OOXML, ODF being a threat even with a tiny market share.