... I completely agree, it seems you understand UI/UX design principles very well!
So... yeah, its entirely possible to have a more varied and more artful internet, that is also not garrish, and broadly functional, if one takes care to account for details as you've outlined.
That just... isn't the path we largely went down.
But uh, neocities is a thing, they're trying to bring back the old spirit of much more lightweight, much more personal and customized websites that the old net had.
Look at their example showcases!
The sites themselves are art.
EDIT:
Though it might be a good idea if they attempted to also offer a basic formatting standard for mobile sites.