> I think most of the complexity stem not just from the word count, but rather that everything interacts with everything else.
That is definitely the main issue.
And you're completely correct on the needed/non-needed/subjective front. Many of the standards reference (in a recursive manner) a lot of other standards. A listed some here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524018 As an outsider it's impossible to know whether TIFF spec or ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange are relevant, an need to be studied, or are there just because they define some minor values referenced in some more higher-level spec.
That is definitely the main issue.
And you're completely correct on the needed/non-needed/subjective front. Many of the standards reference (in a recursive manner) a lot of other standards. A listed some here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524018 As an outsider it's impossible to know whether TIFF spec or ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange are relevant, an need to be studied, or are there just because they define some minor values referenced in some more higher-level spec.