[thro1]

> JS is absolutely crucial for simple things like [..] replacing parts of the page without reloading the entire thing.

not at all

- but you couldn't just.. use iframes because of IE 5.5 bug of ignoring their z-index and displaying always on top of everything - so: either JS to fix that by rewriting content to normal DIV, or the lowest common denominator for all browsers: XMLHttpRequest from.. Microsoft - mind, they had no clue about WWW at that moment - and were promoting Active Desktop and ActiveX technologies which had different purpose - XMLHttpRequest wiht all that mess came out from there.. ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions//ms53750... ).

> date pickers or popovers

- simple example: https://www.opensubtitles.org/ with

JS disabled: movietitle TAB E [english] Enter - done.

JS enabled: movietitle TAB and.. react for nothing but.. SPACE or.. ENTER to open, now you can scroll with arrows (can't just press E WTF!? ), select with SPACE, press TAB ENTER - nothing, TAB ENTER and you hit.. an advert ! (fanfares) (there is no way to enter SEARCH with keyboard really ??) - what for ?

(BTW check that one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39329385 )

[7bit]

LOL

iframes don't even come close to what you do with XHTML

Popovers are something completely different that only NOW come to HTML 5.

[thro1]

iframes ARE part of XHTML and The Web ( -> w3.org ). JS isn't - but it's making that wall..

( ..in big part by empowering young, unexperienced or resume driven developers when making The Web painful to use - if I would like it, how you could call that relation other than.. SM ? )

[thro1]

(first check the facts - if you downvote, whoever argue with the facts.. )