[smt88]

This is the entire reason. HTML, JS, and CSS weren't designed for their current purpose and updating them requires slow coordination across browser developers.

Once you start using compile-to-JS and get out of the JS ecosystem mess, the developer experience suddenly feels much less complicated.

[crabmusket]

What specific compile-to-JS ecosystem do you have in mind? I don't think I've encountered one that doesn't add complexity and layers of indirection. It may be worth it, but it doesn't come for free.

The easiest approach I've ever worked with is vanilla JS. But of course, building complicated stateful apps without a view layer like React is its own complication.

[smt88]

We've had good success with Blazor. The abstractions haven't been leaky. I haven't used it, but supposedly Kotlin-to-JS is excellent as well (and gives you access to a stunning amount of the JVM ecosystem at the same time). People on HN rave about Elm, too.