[wwweston]

Since forcing the industry to realize the possibility of server-side rendering at gunpoint is oppressive and impractical I suppose that there is some sense in which we need "accept that's how websites are built now," but there's certainly no problem with speaking about the benefits of server-side rendering and drawbacks of JS-ification.

> 2-3mb of JS download (that will be cached aggressively)

It's a giant problem on mobile. Connection quality varies and the larger the payload the greater the probability that it just doesn't all load. Caching? Mobile Safari will just reload the entire damn page periodically if you swap apps -- I don't think it caches in the same way that desktop browsers do.

[thestepafter]

A couple versions ago mobile browsers started clearing cache when you leave the application to help save battery life if I remember correctly. Very annoying because now I am unable to open a bunch of tabs in Safari for HN threads before I go off grid.

[buchanaf]

This sounds made up.

[wwweston]

Whether the reason is true, the behavior seems more or less consistent with my experience. Mobile Safari caching seems forgetful on surprisingly short horizons (especially when low power mode is on). Mobile Firefox seems better but sucks down battery life on the order that Google / Apple Maps in active navigation do.

If you have a reason to believe the reality is different, though, happy to hear about more details beyond "this sounds made up."