As a back-end developer, I started off coding ~15 years ago, and hated the entire experience back then. Nowadays, as I look at the tools, frameworks and languag

As a back-end developer, I started off coding ~15 years ago, and hated the entire experience back then. Nowadays, as I look at the tools, frameworks and language enhancements, I'm so glad to be coding in 2018, and not in 2004. The things I can easily accomplish now, far exceed anything I could have done back then. I've heard so many front-end developers/designers say the opposite about their field though, and I wonder why that is. If the newer tools/frameworks are just adding more complexity, or reinventing the wheel, couldn't you just choose not to use them? I suppose some might reply that you're forced to use these new tools/frameworks, because of dependencies on other tools/frameworks that you actually care about. But if that's really the case, and if this frustration is widespread enough, wouldn't people/companies have invested time and effort into supporting the classic-but-equally-good tooling? As someone watching from the outside, I can't imagine a world where an entire industry is running in circles, creating churn devoid of positive value. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I suspect that many of the complainers are suffering from rose-colored glasses. As a heavy web-user, I've noticed that the functionality and aesthetics of websites have improved dramatically in the past 1-2 decades. The websites I see from the 90s and early 2000s, look like a joke today. I suspect that this improvement is only made possible by the new tooling and frameworks that exist today. That they are indeed more complex, but they still unlock new potential that would be too hard to achieve otherwise. That anyone who tries to use ancient tooling from 10-20 years ago, would find themselves unable to provide an equally good mass-market UX. If this is not the case, I invite someone to prove me wrong.