"The web" is a broad concept, but we should break it down to two distinct things: websites and web apps.
You don't need all these extra features for a website. However, they are useful and needed for many web apps. Just because websites sometimes abuse these features doesn't make them bad.
I think this is such an important distinction that we should build it into web standards.
A site should label itself as either a "plain site" or a "web app". "Sites" may only use a limited subset and amount of javascript (perhaps none?!). Browsers, search engines, and plugins can treat plain sites and web apps differently.
>A site should label itself as either "just a site" or a "web app". "Sites" may only use a limited subset and amount of javascript (perhaps none?!). Browsers, search engines, and plugins can treat sites and web apps differently.
I too dislike the fact that web developers have the freedom to make design decisions with which I disagree.
You don't need all these extra features for a website. However, they are useful and needed for many web apps. Just because websites sometimes abuse these features doesn't make them bad.