The jQuery API is really good. It's still better than the DOM API, it's just that now, your framework might give you some of what it does, and the DOM API is al

The jQuery API is really good. It's still better than the DOM API, it's just that now, your framework might give you some of what it does, and the DOM API is almost good enough (and free). You're right about how it was historically misused, thought that has less to do with jQuery than a lack of good client-side frameworks, design patterns, and how rich frontend experiences used to start as just a few callbacks.