[thoughtpalette]

I don't want to diminish your comment, but we've been able to do pure HTML/CSS dropdowns for awhile now. That was actually a coding test I took back in 2014.

I strongly disagree with your last line as well. Coming from, and knowing many of my colleagues that started as HTML+CSS dev, that went into jQuery -> Backbone -> SPA frameworks -> ES6. It's definitely possible, but it depends if the person (or candidate) has the passion and aptitude to pursue that path.

[yuchi]

I used dropdowns as an example for a deceivingly simple UI element. You cannot build a complete dropdown without JS: you need to track keyboard events.

As I answered the other sibling comment: those developers already are UI/app devs in my classification.