Most front end folks that I've spoken with didn't like the jQuery dependency not because it was huge or old but because jQuery does not play nice in a component

Most front end folks that I've spoken with didn't like the jQuery dependency not because it was huge or old but because jQuery does not play nice in a component world (React, Angular, Vue ...). Bootstrap 5's custom Javascript solution will unlikely change their view. With that said, there's a lot to like in Bootstrap 5 to quickly throw together a site.