Its not that W3C will wait till 2014, but there is time for implementers to give feedback (if they haven’t already participated in creating HTML5).
And then W3C will look for at least 2 independent and con formant HTML5 implementations before it set HTML5 as “standard”.
But it also mean that season for hunting for perfect HTML5 implementation (and clubbing on the head of competition for not heaving one) open.
However HTML5 is buzzword for many others yet-not-standards W3C work on (and maybe WegGL).