I get why people want their web sites to look as good as Tufte's books, but since they can't, I wish they wouldn't try. Make things that look good in the medium you're working in; don't blindly copy the rules from other media.
Fine advice for experts, surely. Those who recognize they are blind should copy. Copying Tufte seems like a reasonable way to open their eyes and save everyone else's.
I agree that design is medium-specific, but I think the idea of "looking as good as Tufte's books" is an underspecified one. Can a webpage be a better book than a book? No. Can a webpage be a better webpage by borrowing some ideas from books, then modifying those ideas to fit its own purposes? I think yes.
