> I believe you have to be ideologically motivated to do this now, because it seems like a lot of average web users have come to expect SPA-style apps with fanc

> I believe you have to be ideologically motivated to do this now, because it seems like a lot of average web users have come to expect SPA-style apps with fancy animations and client-side interactivity, and that's where a lot of interest in web design appears to lie at present. A key point the author made in the article was that simplicity is appreciated. Here's an analogy: if Snapchat is the equivalent of an SPA-style site with fancy animations etc, then his app is a static webpage. Just consider for a moment: the reason these analogies to old technology are even necessary is because what this one amateur did today would have definitely taken a team of engineers to accomplish 12 years ago. You are absolutely correct, the standards for professional pop tech are always being raised to new levels, just like with every field, e.g. cooking. Nobody is saying opening a successful restaurant is getting any easier. However, amateur gourmet cooking for the family is demonstrably much easier today than ever before in history.