Great question. I'm short on time (and using my phone to comment) but TLDR, there's a spectrum from (A) "SPA by default" and piling on layers of abstractions

Great question. I'm short on time (and using my phone to comment) but TLDR, there's a spectrum from (A) "SPA by default" and piling on layers of abstractions to (B) properly leveraging the web as a platform, and mentoring the browser instead of micromanaging it ...and the trend is finally starting to move (back) towards (B). There's also a significant role played by the "document-based web" vs "web applications" paradigms' semi-dichotomy. You'll see plenty of (frankly sophomoric) takes like "webdevs are rediscovering that server-rendering HTML is a good idea, LOL, sounds like PHP or my cgi-bin Perl scripts from 1999" -- which ignore the need for client-side interactivity and responsiveness and the profound changes in the capabilities of clients, networks, servers, languages, and tooling over the intervening years. I highly recommend a close look at https://Remix.run https://Remix.run and https://every-layout.dev https://every-layout.dev (and probably https://Astro.build https://Astro.build) for examples of frameworks and techniques that thoughtfully leverage the best of what's new as it continues to evolve, while being firmly grounded in from-first-principles foundations that enable creation of magic comprised of sane primitives. I've been building and improving web-related sites and apps for a living since 1998, and without reservation urge anyone involved in webdev to read up on both Remix and EL's "axiomatic CSS". They provide a profoundly well-informed and -reasoned perspective that answer your question and help show the way forward amid all the froth and churn and nonsense. It's the signal in the noise.