By paying requirements I mean, that at least the German government sometimes still provides documents in Microsoft formats using macros, templates and design features, that are not supported by open source, or free alternatives.
In my opinion, every document provided by a city, a state, a country, should be available in the least expensive way and it is really no big hustle to turn MS stuff into open formats.
Regarding the HTML problem, I think everything can suck hard, if someone wants it to or doesn't care. But honestly I myself don't know how to address that in a useful way except for annoying people until they do things right.
They want that. It's a sad truth, but we need to accept it. America is lost, the people of america are lost. This is a failed state. And globally, the quicker this state goes down, the better the world becomes for everyone else.