The first web browser was read/write, a fact brought to my attention by my colleague Stephen Hood:
Berners-Lee’s original Web browser running on NeXT computers showed his vision and had many of the features of current Web browsers. In addition, it included the ability to modify pages from directly inside the browser – the first Web editing capability. (home.cern)
The original promise of the web was a fully-distributed amalgamation of individuals with web servers. Unfortunately, running your own server never got mainstream traction, and my guess is that this is largely because it never became an easy thing to do. So, platforms took over, streamlining the process of publishing to the web, and thereafter enshittifying it.
What's the solution? An easy way to truly host your own content (like if every router, a constantly-connected device, had its own reliable web front-door)? A distributed platform where everyone becomes a host, through peer-to-peer networks overlaid on the internet? Activity Pub somehow? There has to be a better way.