[akoboldfrying]

> Elm was better without custom kernel modules and sync JS-interop.

That may be true, but what would have been even better is never having the feature, as opposed to adding it, allowing many people to become dependent on it, and then taking it away. (Like everyone else, I'm not claiming Evan should not be able to make such changes -- just that making such changes will breed predictable resentment.)

> It kept the Elm kernel small and portable.

This is a good thing.

> It forced the 3rd party package eco system to innovate and create things rather than just wrap existing Javscript libraries.

This is a bad thing, presented as a good thing. Boring as it may be, if wrapping an existing piece of working code does the job with no downsides then it's always better to do that than reimplement it for reimplementation's sake.

[jfmengels1]

Custom kernel never was a feature the language had. It was an implementation detail that people discovered they could hack, but it was never meant as a feature.