All platforms were not necessarily equal when the Internet/WWW came around. The browsers eventually came to be multi-platform and support standards but it took a very long time to move away from platform specific software. Look at the legacy created by IE, for example.
Standards brought us out of the dark ages. Perhaps the dark ages were necessary for us to arrive at where we are today. The importance of standards and interoperability over the past decade has made possible what we have today.
Maybe, but I fear it's a constant battle we have to fight. Chrome tends to want to be the New IE with specific functions implemented nowhere else, Apple still locks down users to their store and devices, etc... interoperability is far from being achieved.
