The title tells it all...

In an average W3C Recommendation process, the answer to this question would be to remove this feature from the specification. However, the backward compatibility requirement of our charter forbids us to remove an existing feature (unless is is specifically 3.3 only), hence the question in the issue.

This question must have a clean answer before we ask for a transition request.

I copy this issue to Ralph Swick (@swickr) because his opinion is crucial on what we propose to do.