The web is not just a place for text / words, that is not its heart and soul, and therefore neither is that the case for web design.
I'd say that text is not only the heart and soul of the web, but also of motherfucking civilization. Animation and video are nice, and great adjuncts to text. But language is still the most common and easy way to store and share information intended to be consumed by humans, and since that's what the Web is all about, it's not only natural that the Web should be language-focused, but also unnatural that it be anything else.
I'd say that text is not only the heart and soul of the web, but also of motherfucking civilization. Animation and video are nice, and great adjuncts to text. But language is still the most common and easy way to store and share information intended to be consumed by humans, and since that's what the Web is all about, it's not only natural that the Web should be language-focused, but also unnatural that it be anything else.