Oh, we're absolutely using a backend framework, I didn't mean to imply that we're building everything with raw CGI scripts or something like that. In terms of

Oh, we're absolutely using a backend framework, I didn't mean to imply that we're building everything with raw CGI scripts or something like that. In terms of increased productivity, things I've noticed that have helped with productivity: - Using native browser functionality for navigation and form submission allows the browser itself to take on some of the work that would otherwise be filled in by custom code like maintaining browser history. - A standard SPA requires that you maintain an API for the front end to talk to, which a server rendered framework has no need for (we do have an API, but it's specifically for customer usage and doesn't need to cover all use cases we need for our application) - The backend is a 100% known environment, and while you always have to think about browser / device capability, this is greatly reduced when you have small amounts of Javascript, particularly when it's not essential for your page to function - there's also far lower demands on client machines since the bulk of the work is performed by the server. Changes can often be applied in a single "layer". If I need to add a new field to a view, I can just add it to a template, whereas in an SPA I'd need to modify my React components as well as my API, potentially needing to care about API versioning, etc. - More of a broader thing, but I find that environments that use front-end frameworks heavily tend to become more specialized quicker, and environments where you have specialization between front-end and back-end leads to increased needs for coordination for any non-trivial work, which ends up being a pretty big tax on velocity compared to having full-stack developers who can work on anything.