You should check out vue. You don't need npm. Just one js file. There are many css fw that integrate with it as well as ui component libraries. The learning cur

You should check out vue. You don't need npm. Just one js file. There are many css fw that integrate with it as well as ui component libraries. The learning curve is small, almost non-existent if you've done anything with angular. React and its ecosystem would be the other option. I would skip angular.