[timabdulla]

I'm not too sure about HTMX in particular, but my Rails app's FE is just HTML and Stimulus/Turbo. I'm not sure why you think it simply "doesn't work".

To me, it's a lot simpler. I use forms and links and render HTML templates. That's it.

I don't need to worry about building and maintaining a JSON API just to serve the front-end. I don't need to worry about distinct sets of routes and models. There's just one repo with one build pipeline and test setup. There's no need to worry about front-end state at all, since I'm just using plain-old links and forms.

I'm not claiming that there is never a use for React or its ilk, but I am genuinely finding it hard to understand how one can assert that this simple HTML-based approach is categorically worse in all circumstances.

In my context, the simple approach works. If I were working on something that had a high degree of inherent complexity on the front-end -- maybe a web-based video editor or some kind of WSIWYG productivity tool -- this approach would almost surely fall apart, but that's the point of engineering: Choosing the right tool for the job at hand.