I also miss the web. When HTTP form posts were a thing. React and friends are desktop apps, delivered over HTTP, where the browser is the runtime. You know why we got so obsessed with JavaScript? Cause screen refreshes look janky. "Just use XMLHttpRequest to send the data ONLY over the wire! And get data ONLY as a response!" That's how we got into this mess. I'm not saying you don't need JavaScript, or there aren't reasons to use React. I'm saying there are easier solutions to jank. If good engineering is the ability to design the least complicated solution to a problem, we are far from good engineering.
It's weird to see React frequently treated in these kinds of discussions as the opposite of the good-old ways of doing things because React has great support for server-side rendering and form posts. Its server support was one of its major features that initially distinguished it from other front-end frameworks of the time and helped lead to its popularity.
