[littlecranky67]

I tend to agree that you could come up with a solution using server-side catch-all and custom 200/404 routes - and actually I do, as I use nginx with a single line of try_files customization. But this is optional. It shouldn't be required to mess with the server config, if you want a static deployment.

Besides, if you catch-all to a 200.html page, how would you serve 404s? Yes, you can integrate a piece of JS in the 200.html file and have it "display" 404, but the original HTTP response would have been 200 (not 404). A lot of bending web standards and technology, and I can see how framework authors probably decide against that. Especially given how much shit JS frameworks get for "reinventing the wheel" :)

[teekoiv]

It doesn't really matter from user's point of view if the response is 200 or 404 if the end result is the same. This is just a rendered web page after all. But yeah, you can get stuck in the semantics of it but I personally just use what works and move along.