It's called a 'reference architecture'. It's intended to be used as a teaching tool and learning tool for a stack that has tremendous benefits for applications more complex than HN. Since everyone is familiar with HN on HN, they can look at that code and understand how it fits in with the big picture without having to learn a new app PLUS a new architecture.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_architecture

Good god look at all these over-engineered todo lists! All you need is a piece of paper and a pencil. Maybe a pen if you’re on the immutability bandwagon.

This is why the JS community is so fucked. They take what should be a simple website and needlessly complicate it by (poorly) reimplementing what web browsers can already do.

This really isn't why the JavaScript community is fucked. It's just a reference project for others to learn from. The spreading of information and ideas through code doesn't mean anyone's fucked. Why fucked? Are you reading into the fact that it's a young ecosystem with a turbulent flow at the moment? JS is just finding its groove. It's an always developing language that has the difficult job of being the language that runs on a fuck load of systems, within the enormities of the internet.

I'm on the fence for this one. While I completely agree that the JS community is as you say "fucked." There are so many fast moving framework redesigns that make for huge incompatibilities during these paradigm shifts. Super annoying community.

However, I love the advantage of exchanging the most minimal amount of data between a browser and the server for each additional page load (ie: JSON response).

You’ve completely missed the point.

I would consider that a win, personally.