Comment by pocksuppet
4 hours ago
The entire purpose of an element like <b> is what it looks like. If we're being inclusive, then the entire purpose of an element like <b> is what it looks like, how it sounds, how it feels in Braille, and so on. Nothing more. It does not map to some abstract concept.
It should be defined as: When rendered on a visual display device supporting bold font, it makes the text bold. The specific behavior is not guaranteed and may vary based on the user-agent. For example, screen readers will pronounce the text with emphasis.
The entire purpose of <b> was what it looked like. They changed its definition to not be about what it looked like but why an author might make it look that way, i.e. to bring attention to it. The representation flows from the motivation, there's no need to embed a look in the definition.