Comment by apotheon

That's obviously true, but at the same time the specifics of how one chooses to set criteria for inclusion in the standard should probably keep in mind the social consequences. If the intended consequence (e.g. ensuring that implementation is easy enough and desired enough to end up broadly included for portability) and the likely consequence (e.g. reduced standardization of C capabilities in practice, with rampant relianced by developers on implementation-specific behavior to the point almost nobody writes portable code any longer) differ too much, it's time to revisit the mechanisms that get us there.