XML a high level protocol

I have started to think that the great success of XML and the Web Services, beside the fact that is slow and chatty protocol is because XML is a high level protocol (the same way Java is a high level programming language).
I don-t imaging myself changing the CORBA protocol to add certain feature... but things changes when we talk about XML. It's not a human readable but more readable that binary protocols, and easier to change: yes. That's the success and the strength of XML....
We have just to wait to see how the performance problem of XML are solved... and in my opinion has a lot.