Flashy 10-Ks are hugely annoying, especially in IFRS where there’s no standard. Give me tables all day every day. The lack of standardization in financial reporting already sinks enough of my time.
About 5 years ago I made an XBRL viewer. In a ton of reports I tested the data did not match the paper reports. After ruling out bugs in my own software I went as far as emailing a few companies investor relations departments and never got a response.
I hope things have improved in the years since but I doubt it. Nobody looks at the XBRL its just a regulatory box tick.
It isn't a choice for any registrant that is filing to the SEC. Even the smallest filers will have to file most reports using XBRL after June.
The application of XBRL doesn't really affect the design of the reports. It ebbs and flows - it feels like more designed filings are coming back with better tools that allow more designed reports.
The is an entire industry that does financial printing; 10k, quarterly reports, prospectuses etc. they handle the filing with SEC/Edgar. If there is a descrepency it arises there. Any one remember when RRDonnelley submitted Googles data a couple hours early during trading and they had to halt trading in the stock?
