Did the designers of Unix also have to ensure compatibility with billions of devices connected worldwide running different software stacks?
Also as mentioned in the linked article the masonry layout is already possible with JS, no decades-long committee process needed. It's just about standardizing something frequently used.
The point GP is making is that they didn't have to, because the architecture made it infinitely configurable while remaining coherent.
Billions of connected devices worldwide do indeed run on *nix with a mad variety stacked on top.
It's fine, just run ./configure before compiling.