HTML is nothing more than grouping definition of DOM elements. One of possible ways of defining element agglomerations. It is not bad or good, it just allows t

HTML is nothing more than grouping definition of DOM elements. One of possible ways of defining element agglomerations. It is not bad or good, it just allows to make job done - to group (semantically link) DOM elements together. But the DOM element itself is what makes the difference. DOM element is the atomic block that a) can be attributed, b) may have states c) to be styled according to those attributes and states and d) can receive events. In that respect Web UI is more granular than desktop UI. On desktop you have windows (NSViews, GtkWidgets, etc) that are macro state machines. E.g. COMBOBOX, LISTVIEW that have predefined complex structures and expose quite few configuration options|styles. Web UI components are usually composed from many individually accessible and configurable DOM elements. And that creates an impression of Web UI complexity. But in fact Web UI is just a DOM element with styles and bunch of layout managers to replace those DOM elements - its vocabulary is conceptually simpler and more regular than desktop macro blocks. ReactJS (PReact, Mithril, Vue, etc) are not more than reactive DOM element aggregators - definitions of runtime assemblage of those LEGO bricks (DOM elements) in response of state/attributes changes. On top of those we have Web UI frameworks that are all about providing sets of components - predefined types of aggregates of DOM elements.