Exactly. I see no reason for this to be in Core when it is probably one of the easiest Plugins there could be. eg,
plugin.rb
# name: progress
# version: 0.1
register_asset "javascripts/progress.js.es6", :server_side
progress.js.es6
Discourse.Markdown.whiteListTag("progress", "class", /d-prog/);
Discourse.Markdown.whiteListTag("progress", "max", /[0-9\.]+/);
Discourse.Markdown.whiteListTag("progress", "value", /[0-9\.]+/);
