[piranha]

> why would it make an api call

Because this introduces clear separation of concerns? You don't need to make this API call via HTTP, you can just call a function. You don't even need to generate/parse JSON!

I know that because this is what we are doing. Just calling a function called "httpapp". :)

[bernawil]

Well, but then it's not the same api call and that's the point: that in the old mvc frameworks it was painful having to support controllers that both rendered html and json for doing both SSR and Ajax.

Around the time the first js FE frameworks came out, people finally became confident enough to have pure js clients and only json APIs.

And finally gatsby, next.js, etc. brought a new twist to the SSR and Ajax api combo.