Two things: - adding interactivity to a web page vs building an application. Those are not the same thing, and what you read applies to the first - there's a

Two things: - adding interactivity to a web page vs building an application. Those are not the same thing, and what you read applies to the first - there's a widely accepted belief that vanilla js is not suitable for building apps. I don't buy into this belief. I have a built networked Scrabble game with vanilla js. Both the backend and the frontend. This simplicity allowed external contributors not well-versed in the modern web stack to contribute. I also was able to enter the code of Pianojacq (from jacquesm) [1] and contribute quite easily because he also chose vanilla js. This simplicity is very valuable, and lost with modern framework, and nobody is really concerned about this. I've done some React development, so I know my way in a modern app. I've also contributed to a frontend written in Vue. I think they solve problems but bring complexity to the table, in particular the tooling (bundlers, minifiers, etc), the dependencies and the debugging being much harder. It seems DOM manipulation through native browser API scares many people, but when it's what you are familiar with, your usual "framework", it's manageable. You need to be disciplined to avoid things getting messy (a discipline frameworks partially enforce), but I really believe you can go far with vanilla js. I believe React & Co are often picked to ease beginners' contributions, but they actually do require expertise. I'd rather touch vanilla js code from a beginner or an experienced developer than a React code from a beginner. It's a matter of taste. Vanilla JS has the taste of fresh air to me. It's zen. You write the code and it runs. No tools, no slow compilation, no minification that complicates the debugging. Minification which is only useful because with those frameworks you bundle an awful quantity of code in the first place. Yes, source maps exists but they don't do everything. But today you won't have access to the whole ecosystem of existing React components with vanilla JS. It might be a curse or a benediction. [1] https://gitlab.com/jmattheij/pianojacq https://gitlab.com/jmattheij/pianojacq