One very good reason for demanding standards compliance is to ensure you are employing people who are staying current.  Standards are always changing and improving, so those who live by them must 'do thier homework'.

Aside from providing you with up-to-date skills and abilities, it means that the individuals will have common ground on which to work effectively together - especially if they come from different disciplines or work on the project at different times in it's life-cycle.

There are several types of 'web standards' involved, each providing important benefits to you and the users of your website.  Here's a quick overview of a few and how they matter to you:

• xhtml/css - critical
  
• helps to reduce most of the redundancy and human error that plague html sites, meaning your site is more reliable and much less expensive to maintain
• your site's design will have a predictable upgrade path, meaning a longer life span and less expense to update and/or upgrade. (Including compatibility with Plone's own upgrades).
  
• these standards are very structured so that software, especially the search engines, can read and interpret the pages accurately.  Without these standards nothing else you do will succeed for long (if at all).
• accessibility - courtesy
  
• this is a set of standards that ensure that your site can be used by disabled or elderly persons.
  
• For example: this site can be sensibly read aloud (and navigated) by programs for the blind
• cross-browser compatibility (aka AnyBrowser) - very important
  
• Every browser does things a little differently, even the standards compliant ones.  Some aren't compliant at all and do things completely differently (notably Microsoft's Internet Explorer)
  
• sites should operate properly in all browsers, including text-only browsers and browsers that have features disabled (such as Javascript/cookies) or that are behind corporate security (firewalls).
  
• why would you knowingly disregard even just 5% of your potential customers?
• this has traditionally been a very difficult and expensive feat to accomplish, usually leading to many compromises. 
  
  Ian's Notes:
  
• Plone has, by far, the most thoroughly tested standard layout I've ever found.  It has been used extensively since 2004, under every imaginable situation, by millions worldwide. It even supports right-to-left languages and themes.
  
• This is because Plone is a global community of developers.  It is virtually impossible for any small or medium sized design team to accomplish this level of quality testing.
• There's certainly no better 'starting place' for a website design, which is why I prefer to build on it whenever possible.  Though extensive customization may sometimes compromise the default layout, these errors are usually easy to fix. 

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