[chriswarbo]

> "Statically generated JSON resources" implies client-side rendering, and I suspect you'd find some disagreement over whether that's really static.

> If the JS running on the client has to fetch many such resources and stitch them together, then it's functionally equivalent to a standard dynamic website and shares many of its drawbacks.

Whilst you're talking about extremes (e.g. rendering a page using Javascript), it seems to me that the most abundant use for AJAX-style approaches on static sites is when there are a few "value added" parts which rely on a DB. For example, a static blog with Disqus comments.

As other commenters have noted, the ability to push bits and pieces of functionality into JS has tipped the balance in many cases, e.g. from "if you want comments, it'll all have to be done in PHP" to "there's no point rendering this on demand, we can do the dynamic bits in JS".