We should have listened to Ted Nelson the first time around. For Nelson, hypertext is not just hyperlinked text. It's a permanent repository of text with hyperlinks and transclusions, both being permanent references, and DRM to ensure the rightsholders of linked/transcluded text get automatically remunerated whenever their work is downloaded/read, and a microtransaction system to enable such remuneration.

Tim Berners-Lee thought he could nick just the "good bits" from this model -- or rather, the low-hanging fruit, punting the tricky-to-implement stuff until later -- but you really need all of the parts, otherwise you will have a broken, half-working (if that) system with seams showing all over the place.

It's time to realize that Project Xanadu was the correct way to view hypertext, and compromising on that vision has cost us dearly.