I think we need to distinguish between human-level conventions and
protocol elements. Any "harmfulness" in the former is not something
that can be addressed technically.
Ok, human bad, protocol element good. That's quite clear. Pesky
humans.
well, the human behavior is at least somewhat influenced by the
interfaces they're using. improved interfaces might produce better
behavior independently of any changes to protocol elements or how they
are used.
Is [nameoflist] inserted by a list processor a human-level convention?
If a machine puts it there, I think it's reasonable for another
machine to try to take it out. If we as an Internet community can
make that easier, we will have done a good thing.
perhaps. but while we might accept an arms race ("complexity race"?)
as a short-term necessity, it seems like there are better ways for
lists to tag their contents and for MUAs to display information about
list origin to recipients.