Thanks, Justin, for the nice summary.

I've really been trying to like Gutenberg. Believe me, friends and neighbors, I really have. But when an editor starts messing with the HTML5 content model for no reason I really can't come up with a smart defense anymore.

A spacer block div? In a nav menu list? Are you kidding me? This is just plain wrong on so many levels!

First of all, why would I ever want to include empty div containers for the purpose of styling at all? This is definitely not the way HTML content structures and web layouts are supposed to be created.

What's the next step following this approach? Table layouts? Transparent pixels? 🤔

And of course you're totally right: the children of a list element should be list items (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/grouping-content.html#the-ul-element).

How can something so flawed ever make it into a release? I am by no means a design Guru or programming genius. Far from it. And I certainly don't want to sound snooty. But even I understand that this sort of rubbish is completely unacceptable.

The least I expect from a content editor is that it allows me to make my own mistakes – not have it make them for me without my knowing.

A bad tool is a bad tool, even for a skilled craftsman. I can always try to improve my own set of skills, but I can't and certainly don't want to spend my time fixing my tools. Not to mention the way those tools can and will be used by less skilled content producers (e.g. editorial departments).

In the end it all boils down to the issue of reliability. Tools need to be reliable. A content editor has to function and output valid content reliably. It seems that Gutenberg is trying very, very hard to erode that reliability.

Maybe I am overreacting, but it feels like it is about time to look for something else.