The term "Server Side Rendering" generally refers to client-side frameworks which have been adapted to server-side. These have been nearly entirely JavaScript

The term "Server Side Rendering" generally refers to client-side frameworks which have been adapted to server-side. These have been nearly entirely JavaScript for obvious reasons. Frameworks that generate HTML on the server side have been around a long time, but are mostly not considered in this category. I would say though there are a decent number of modern ones in the "static site generator" category that exist in many languages. It makes sense to me that in the current iteration of web tech that the client code and the server code be mostly in JavaScript since it allows for a single code base between the front and backend. There is definitely hope for other languages in this space though as WebAssembly gains more traction. As for the bundle size of an app, it's not too surprising that a bespoke app would be smaller than a modest framework. Choosing a framework will always be a trade-off of size, complexity and whatever features the framework offers. I think wether you see it as "suck" depends on how much you love or hate JavaScript and how tolerant you are to using modestly large frameworks. Mostly, I see the modern crop of JS frameworks as a breath of fresh air compared to what precedes them, though the complexity of what is imported when running an `npm install` is enough to give me pause and a wish for something more minimal.