[em-bee]

when i add something to the server generated html, first of all i have to change the html template, then i have to add the field to the function/class that feeds the data into the template, and i have to add it to the database if it is not already there.

with a frontend framework i add it to the html template in the frontend, and i add it to the function/class that generates the json output. and again to the database if not already there.

as far as i can tell, that's the same amount of code that needs to be changed.

yes, there is one piece of extra code to generate json, but that is either a standard library or something you write once. either way, the json generator should not need to be changed.