[jjnoakes]

This is simply not true. Ignoring the fact that "real application on the web" has no definition... very useful web pages can be created without JavaScript, and they can (quite easily) interact with the user by taking input and updating what they display.

Why is something like that useful? Accessibility, security, backward compatibility, ...

[adamors]

Yes that's why they specifically said web applications not pages. You cannot create web application without JS.

[jjnoakes]

Sure you can. As I explained above.