[lghh]

There are benefits to a compilation (transpilation?) step that are worthwhile. Most notably, types/typescript.

Everyone's bar for what is bloat is a bit different. Everyone's definition of simple and clean is different. Typescript, even with a compilation step, is simple and clean to me. Javascript without types is the opposite of simple. Javascript without types is the opposite of clean.

[paranoidxprod]

I've been using JSDoc with tsserver and its been working great for development. Types from typescript are removed at compile time, so they just help with the dx around JS, but I've been noticing similar benefits just using JSDoc.

[j45]

dynamically rewriting JavaScript into not JavaScript as it evolves into a full programming language is an overhead that has its pros and cons.

A build system for a simple hello world page is the example I can’t often wipe from my mind.

Reactivity in web apps has been great but around for 20 years already from its roots in Ajax.