You can replace java with javascript and your sentence is still 100% true.

And I think that's the point many are trying to make. It's not overly complicated, it's just that people are trying to use every tool they read about without understanding it or why it was created.

If you are making a website for your restaurant, you don't need react, webpack, babel, sass, etc... You need a few hundred lines of html and like 20 of javascript and you are good to go. But if you are building a video streaming platform, then the extra complexity will most likely pay off.

Javascript is a scripting language for the browsers. Its original purpose was to make dynamic webpages by allowing browsers to modify their content according to some basic scripts.

If I replace "Java" with "javascript" I get:

  > Javascript really shines better in the backend long-lived services realm.

You realize how ironic that sounds, right? No matter how many language improvements, transpilers, builders, etc. you throw at it, javascript will always remain, at its core, a dumb scripting language for browsers.

Well I can't say I agree in the slightest.

If you treat JS like a toy, it's gonna act like a toy.

Treating it as something else won't make it something else. It will just require a "minimal" stack of 10 other technologies.

Again, you don't need to believe me, but shoving your head in the sand and pretending it's not useful isn't going to do you any good.

Tons of companies are very successfully using javascript for long-running processes on the server side. And it's not exactly showing any signs of slowing down.

Mhm, they have been.

Then they rewrote everything from scratch because as it turns out, javascript on the server side is still pretty damn awful performance wise.

Beats the hell out of Python or Ruby in that department. But regardless, absolute speed isn't the bottleneck in most situations, and in those cases trying to force JS will end you in a world of hurt.

Like most things in life, use it in moderation, and you'll end up much happier. But if you take absolute stances on things, you are only hurting yourself.