There is nothing like the 43rd day of your life spent tracking down issues due to CR/LF, different slash types, or a Big Endian vs. Little Endian bug. These issues are 20 years old and they make me feel as though humans are still cavemen. Are we simply replacing these old issues for new ones? XML has helped but aren't these issues costing companies millions in time, money, and effort? Is it a conspiracy to promote vendor-lockin?
Yes.
However I don't think it's a conspiracy as such. "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence".