I don't think that that's his point -- I see this as orthogonal to whether there is a standard or not.

The reason those don't have a standard is merely because they are so simple they don't need a full document to describe them.

And I don't see a clash between a "goverment mandate" and "design", since in this case the government mandate is exactly a design, that is, the work and output of a set of designers working for the government.

It's not like some random bureucrat that knows nothing about the web created the standard.