Most everything you're talking about is explicable by popularity effects. That's why more objective study would be interesting. Alas, I doubt it will happen: se

Most everything you're talking about is explicable by popularity effects. That's why more objective study would be interesting. Alas, I doubt it will happen: serious research on software engineering, as opposed to the thin broth we have now, would require at least an order of magnitude more funding, and no one's likely to provide that. I'm not sure I like your distinction between developer enjoyment, lack of boilerplate, and state management. To me those things all have to do with good design.