Re: justification for producing valid [X]HTML?

Nick Kew is your man :

http://valet.webthing.com/page/why.html

To the three attitudes you mentioned:

1.  We design our documents for a consistent "look and feel"
        (using mostly WYSIWYG HTML editors).
Look perhaps but not Feel - a (SAX) XML parser working on a document must work faster on a valid document that being the shortest path to a successful accurate rendering.

    2.  Our documents render "properly" in Netscape/Mozilla/IE.
Yes, render but not "process". Web automation requires that a transport protocol reproduce the exact document (object model), no more, no less.

    3.  Why bother to take the extra time to produce valid HTML when
        the "invalid" HTML works just fine?
OK, so caviar is just fish eggs; but I know what I'd rather consume or be selling ...