the web doesn't have any user for pdf formats; use HTML

The "churn and noise" has nothing to do with HTML, any more than paper size or binding has anything to do with the content of a book. Great, eschew HTML for PDF. The linked PDF only contains the screed itself, it provides no other value. You want to "fight back"? First, you have to make an impact for your change to have any weight -- and to do that, you need to provide some other value to the world. Maybe the author has done this. It wasn't obvious from following the link. And you don't need PDF to follow the "call to action" at the end of the lengthy pro-PDF diatribe. A plain-text ASCII file works just as well; better, even, since every browser and operating system can view text files. Even systems that are 20 years old or more. Most likely systems 40 years from now will be able to, too. Sign and hash the content of the file, if you wish. And *neither* format involves spying on users.

I've read it and while on an emotional level I sympathize with the message, I take a major issue nonetheless: These types of essays/manifestos always seem to portray consumers as clueless victims of corporate interests and propose solutions to supposedly help them. Well guess what: you average user DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT. On the contrary he's quite happy with how easy, fast and reliable the webapps he uses are and doesn't in fact care about privacy, decentralization or the FOSS/libre cause (which he most probably doesn't know exists). And I'm not stating that as an elitist point. My thought is we should accept and respect that majority of people want the web to go in the direction in which it's going right now and instead of trying to change that build our own thing.