The first reply that showed up for me just said “that’s dumb”, and well, yup that about sums it up.

Yeah, and that reply is from CEO of Epic Games. I don't know if this holds any weight with ISO, but it at least explains why this particular Twitter thread complaining about access to ISO-8601 standard is hitting HN frontpage.

And he raises a good point downthread, too:

"So, what's the calculus with something like the ISO C++ standard? You sell 1000 copies at $200 = $200,000 lifetime income. Meanwhile, a lack of understanding of C++ details is kneecapping a hundred billion dollar segment of the technology industry. It's absolute madness."

For C++ there's no practical problem, since the C++ committee chooses to make the I-can't-believe-it's-not-ISO ‘final draft’ public.