theory vs practical
Wonder if any of the leaders of both groups actually work "at the coal face" so to speak?
I would hope they do.
The reality is, for the most part, developers have to work behind the bleeding edge for real world applications - at least for desktop websites.
Having said that, used carefully, progressive enhancement and various javascript libraries (such as respond.js and moderniser) allow us to put into practice some of the better aspects of css3 and html5.
So long as the client is educated and informed as to what different browsers will display, I think cause for alarm right now is ill-advised.
The trickle down has always been glacial and the standards have to appease many different interests - that's just human nature - it's *not* an easy job to corral all the camps and get agreement.
What we *don't* want is a return to the mess we had in the late nineties and early noughties. We're in a massively better place now than we were then, thanks in part to those who set the standards, but mainly to those who implement them and find workarounds - developers!
There will always be a bleeding edge - we just need to ensure it's possible to achieve that edge in production within a reasonable time frame as the edge moves forward.