What you've outlined above is a common misconception about RDF. Here's another way of looking at RDF:
An abstract data definition language for structured data represented as entity relationship graphs. Basically, the same Entity-Attribute-Value model that's existed for eons plus the addition of formalized identifiers (i.e., IRIs) for denoting entities, attributes, and values.
That's it!
RDF Schema, OWL Ontology, etc.. are simply Data Dictionaries comprising terms that describe Entity Relationship Types.
Ignoring the fact that the underlying semantics of that data description are still fundamentally misguided and broken...
What you've outlined is the common misconception by the Semantic Web community about what constitutes a living and workable software ecosystem.
It's the classical architecture-astronauts fallacy of ignoring this age old truth: The medium is the message.
The "but RDF only specifies the semantics of abstract graph data, all the serialisation formats are just implementation defined incidentals" argument is at the root of why there are thousands pages of specifications and 0 high quality semantic web libraries or tools.
It's like saying "no, no, no, you misunderstand JSON/XML/YAML/ASN.1 it is not a (flawed?) serialisation format, it is a data model for trees, which works on any text processing capable system", true, but a straw-man.
Developers and Ontologists flocking to Protege, OWL API and Jena, is akin to dehydrated animals flocking to the last muddy and barely drinkable water-hole. They have no choice and it's mostly sh*t.
Everybody is still editing XML files by hand, there is no maintained, complete, production ready library for any language, and most of the stuff that does exist is either the cadaverous remain of a publicly funded science grant or an obscure project developed by a lone consultant who made peddling the semantic web his livelyhood without any real community.
People have to be able to use a system, and then actually use it in order to be meaningful, theoretical what ifs are irrelevant.
An abstract data definition language for structured data represented as entity relationship graphs. Basically, the same Entity-Attribute-Value model that's existed for eons plus the addition of formalized identifiers (i.e., IRIs) for denoting entities, attributes, and values.
That's it!
RDF Schema, OWL Ontology, etc.. are simply Data Dictionaries comprising terms that describe Entity Relationship Types.
Related:
[1] Understanding Data -- https://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/understanding-29894555
[2] RDF based Linked Data, Ontologies, and KnowledgeGraph -- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linked-data-ontologies-knowle...