I don’t think it fits the definition of a cargo cult. It’s about convenience. I can use a <header /> and the screen reader announces it as such. I could do that

I don’t think it fits the definition of a cargo cult. It’s about convenience. I can use a <header /> and the screen reader announces it as such. I could do that with ARIA, but why put in the extra effort? To use a more gross example, I could make a div into a text input or even a form with contenteditable, a bunch of CSS I’d otherwise get out of the box, and a lot of JS. Yet it would require much more work. The only thing I’ll grant you is that my first example’s benefit is a marginal difference, but there is a benefit nonetheless. It was also probably pushed as much for the screen reader benefit as it was for the ability to parse and extract information if I’m feeling cynical, but I digress.