. . but I consider the tools provided at the creation end to be insufficient to the job of providing adequate hints to the interpreter. The types of pages provided for are simply inadequate except for academic papers and other very simple documents.

Once again, a layout language without even the most rudimentary ability to describe white space is brain dead from birth - and you have your Reagan browser making up a lot of stuff because it's working with an inadequate information set.

Trying to compensate for the lack of basic layout features is, in my opinion, the root cause of a great deal of the mess you are trying to correct from the user end. If the creation tools were adequate, you'd be doing a lot less repair.

PDF, while capable of a minor supporting role, is of limited use because it is far too rigid. So we are stuck with a huge unserved territory between inadequacy and inflexibility.