Here is what I did when I had to create a fairly complicated web application with no prior experience in web development (but 20+ years of developer experience

Here is what I did when I had to create a fairly complicated web application with no prior experience in web development (but 20+ years of developer experience in other environments): I started by learning the basics: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Without relying on any build systems or packages. And only then adding a build step or package if it really absolutely was worth it compared with writing a bit of extra code myself. It worked like a charm. I completed the project in a few months with very few dependencies. And the build “system” was simple. Which should be kinda obvious when you think about it: Every build system or package you rely on will become a liability and a major pain point down the road. Guaranteed. So the less you rely on external tools/packages, the more stable your code will be. And the more you understand the basics, the more you are able to fix problems with code you didn’t write yourself. The downside of course is that you have to invest more heavily in the basics (HTML,CSS,JS) but that is a good thing. The time you spend becoming an expert in fashionable build tool X or package Y is a waste of time. Something else will be more fashionable tomorrow so your hard earned expertise is wasted. It is a bad investment compared with deeply understanding the foundation (HTML,CSS,JS).