I understand the concept of what the new b and i usage can offer, but it seems completely deprecated by CSS.

The pros: b and i are short, potentially saving on filesize. They’re well known among developers of different levels of experience.

The cons: b and i will be 100% presentational, and presentation should be separated from the HTML. Because they’re well known, they will constantly be misused by less standards-aware developers. They are extra HTML tags that duplicate a function that is already available.

I question whether there could ever be a real-world use. The only real-world use I can envision would be on an art site, which by its nature would require visitors to be sighted, changing the situation such that the accessibility justifications for semantic code and separation of presentation elements would carry less weight. In such a situation, it would be reasonable for the developer to misuse ‘strong’ or ’em’ (or just stretch CSS classes+span tags).

Am I too idealist? Is there really a likely real-world use that justifies the non-deprecation of b and i, given that they will be misused if they’re not fully deprecated?