<< is a special case, however it is a special case of the same
magnitude as <lt>. The change doesn't introduce "special case" logic,
it just trades one set of logic for another.
People think that << is more readable than <lt> and this justifies the
change. I can't disagree with this.
As I mentioned in an earlier message, <verbatim> does three different
things, all at once:
1. It turns off filling
2. It changes the newline model
3. It turns off command interpretation (except </verbatim>)
It is useful to do (1) without doing (3), so a <nofill> command is
needed regardless of whether <verbatim> exists.