[jariel]

The problem here is that it's actually hard to do a lot of what should be 'simple things' without all that cruft.

Web interfaces are unlike other tech layers in the sense that without tooling, it's often not 'simpler' it's diving into the cruft and weirdness of browserland.

React etc. are not just 'frameworks' they are also 'making something very hard to use, usable in a specific way'.

This issue exposes the inherent hidden complexity of browser weirdness.

If you really want to keep it simple, within some very specific parameters, and have enough experience to know what those are ... it's managable 'by hand' or whatever. But it usually gets ugly.