If you started on front-end around 2004 like I did you've seen the natural progression of plain-js -> Prototype -> jQuery -> Backbone -> Ember/Angular -> React

If you started on front-end around 2004 like I did you've seen the natural progression of plain-js -> Prototype -> jQuery -> Backbone -> Ember/Angular -> React like a slow process that took more than 10 years but it does make sense now. I agree that learning front-end today must be overwhelming but is the suggested alternative? Do things like we did a decade ago and figure it out yourself?