The list of options presented turned the poll into a silly joke.

HTML is not a form of XML! It's similar, but one ain't a form of the other.

I think most of the hate comes from the tendency of a lot of (especially) companies, that go absolutely bollocks when designing their XML formats producing thus insane, overcomplicated, hard to use messes. An from some people's insistence on using XML everywhere for everything. SOAP or HR-XML can turn anyone to a XML-hater.