There was a viral post on HN back in the day that demoed how the web would look like with seamless page loads instead of JavaScript. The consensus then was that

There was a viral post on HN back in the day that demoed how the web would look like with seamless page loads instead of JavaScript. The consensus then was that the blank page and spinning gifs were good UI for showing that your click has led to a major change, while seamless JS communicated a minor action to the users