> It seems like the XSLT 2.0 rules produce an effect, which 
> hinders the elimination of the stylesheet's XSLT-namespace 
> declaration with the prefix "xsl":

The criteria behind the spec were:

* produces the desirable and intuitive effect in "natural" use cases

* produces a well-defined effect in other cases

* avoids excess complexity in the spec.

To be honest, I think the language would be perfectly viable without
namespace-alias. You just have to use xsl:element and xsl:attribute when
generating stylesheets - which is what many people do anyway.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/