Also entirely possible that I'm misunderstanding both of you, but I think what the parent comment was imagining was something like common schemas (like schema.org[1]?) for content that is currently around the web and encased in the challenging web design you mention.

With common (and evolving) formats -- and incentives for publishers to provide their information within those formats -- we could then have much simpler, more streamlined tools to use and remix that data in application-specific ways.

[1] - https://schema.org/docs/full.html