Maybe over-complicating things is a way of eliminating competition from Google. If it wasn't so complicated, someone could easily offer a competing, privacy-oriented browser; which Google would not like-- so make it so hideously complex no one can do it without $50 mil? There would be more innovation if things were simple, because anyone with a good idea could contribute.
This sort of happened when the WHATWG effectively wrested control of HTML away from the W3C (although Google was not a founding member, they are one of the Steering Members now). https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/when-standards-divide/
The membership of the W3C supported XHTML, to improve interoperability among other reasons. Apple, Mozilla and Opera had a different vision and broke away and formed the WHATWG which Google and Microsoft later joined. Those companies (minus Opera) now have near total control over HTML and the W3C just rubber stamps whatever they decide.
(Note: I don't believe the participants in WHATWG were doing what they did for anti-competitive purposes, but in hindsight it had that effect.)
XHTML actually decreased interoperability with seldom anyone able to produce conformant strict XHTML. XHTML was a huge mistake, the W3C obsoleted itself with this one.
