I will die eventually. Should I just give up now then? XHTML is no more future proof then HTML is.

The syntax is not any stricter. XHTML is just HTML 4.01 + XML. The reason closing tags are optional is to save space. If I removed my closing tags, it wouldn't make a difference because it's structured correctly. If someone had structured it incorrectly, it's going to be screwed whether they close the tags or not... so it doesn't make a difference.

XHTML has the big disadvantage that the most popular browsers in use can't read it, so they translate it into HTML, thus getting rid of any so-called advantages. So using XHTML gives you exactly zero advantages, unless you are using TRUE XHTML (not just delivered as HTML) and developing websites for jack-all of the population, in which case you should rethink why you are even in business if you're kissing a majority of potential customers goodbye.

Considering XHTML at this point in time is unusable from a commercial perspective, why people would think its better (given it has to be served as text/html anyway in order to be viewable by everyone) is beyond me.