Regarding frameworks: Things like frameworks have utility in large scale web applications where you need to manipulate a lot of data on screen on the fly. Using

Regarding frameworks: Things like frameworks have utility in large scale web applications where you need to manipulate a lot of data on screen on the fly. Using the right framework for the right thing can make development and maintenance fat cheaper and faster. That said, using a framework because other companies are using frameworks is definitely an unnecessary layer of complexity, and most websites don't need to be using React or the like. Regarding UIs and Designs: companies want their sites to look nice and so they hire designers who may or may not be trained to design for the web. Print design and web design are very different disciplines. You can end up with really strange and poorly performing sites when a design doesn't match up with the reality of browser rendering. Regarding sites that have huge payloads: this is almost always a product of management/marketing input, and payloads end up ballooning when someone says "can we just add an X pixel" or "can we try this one new piece of tracking software." Is the complexity there necessary? Probably not, but when multiple stakeholders have say, this is probably going to happen.