Sounds like Gemini.

>In terms of simplicity, the native content type, “gemtext”, is meant to be loaded in a single request, therefore there are no inline images, no iFrames, fonts, scripts or anything else.

Good luck replacing the web with request/response markdown. I would figure at the least something that could serve Wikipedia would be a bare minimum.

It sounds like that can serve wikipedia, just without inline pictures. In fact, the cursory reading suggests that you can even have pictures if they're not in line. I admit that that's a small step down from the current experience, but it might be worth it.

I guess the larger picture is we all know the internet-at-large community would never accept it.

Can you imagine ATT or Amazon or whatever company website as a slightly fancier markdown file?

The only people that would do it are blogger types.

Yes, that's true. Although in some ways that's not a problem with the technology; companies would hate it in no small part because it limits the anti-user things they can do, which is part of the appeal.

And who pays for it?