So much of the backlash is due to the simple (but very significant) confusion between web pages and web apps. No one should build a web page as an SPA with JS.

So much of the backlash is due to the simple (but very significant) confusion between web pages and web apps. No one should build a web page as an SPA with JS. Most web pages are ideally suited for static site generators. Just abiding by this simple rule would make life vastly better for users. By the same token, it would be relative folly to try to build a chat client using server-side rendering. It can be done, but a chat client, like a spreadsheet or email client, are all proper applications, and so are ideally suited to being built as SPAs. There are some projects that lie in between, and in my experience, these usually work out best if coded using a server-side framework with a tiny amount of client JS for UI tweaks. Reddit is a good example of this. Reddit has become significantly worse once re-coded as an SPA. As for the whole idea of building web apps without using frameworks: I lived in the era and did just that. Usually, the result was a total nightmare, with a rat’s nest of jQuery and various other crap. If you were lucky, you worked for a company that knew the value of abstracting out common features and using a pattern such as MVC or MVP. In that case, you end up with what’s more or less a framework by the end, and indeed, most large companies and consultancies had their own in-house client-side frameworks. If you’re doing that, it makes sense to open source the framework to share the burden with other companies. The real complaint seems to be the misuse of client-side frameworks. But this is a function of junior devs and poorly-trained devs misusing a framework, not the framework’s fault. Such developers would make even slower apps without a framework, believe me. Only it would be be a rat’s nest of unorganized spaghetti code.