>> Perhaps you can write a tiny web app that loads instantly and still retains a full set of features, but most of the world cannot.

> I've long been skeptical of this line of thinking emanating from major thick client JS framework authors. I think they underestimate what people are capable of.

I am also skeptical, but for a slightly different reason.

I believe the original statement from the article is true today.

I also believe things would be very different if the same web developers we have today spent less time learning new frameworks every five minutes and more time learning the fundamentals of the underlying technologies (JS, HTTP, and so on), broader skills like programming and UI design, and more professional practices like standardisation and backward and forward compatibility.

So many tools in web development today are merely papering over the cracks that other tools unwittingly created in the first place. The advocacy of using these kinds of tools to be more future-proof or standardised than building with solid fundamentals is one of the greatest ironies in programming history.