And there you are a few comments above telling us we have to use Webpack because other older module systems are zombies that came and went.
The truth is that we'll never have enough time learn everything we should learn and every minute I spend re-learning a different way to do something I already know how to do is a minute I'm not spending learning something actually new and useful.
If, for example, I'm writing a web app related to storing and processing geology related measurements (which I am) I should be spending most of my 'learning time' studying things related to geology and the processing of said measurements, not re-learning how web development is done this week.
Something about this smells.
What is it.
Is it the way "we would love it if it stopped changing" but it's us who is changing it?
Is it that the changes are reinventing the wheel? Churn because frothy churn is easier and more profitable than meticulous, solid, long-lasting foundations?
Or is it that we still haven't managed to orient the programming industry around 'finished' software such that if we ever 'finish' software we immediately stop being employed, so we have a pathological need for software to continually need to be rewritten, at the level the average programmer can rewrite?
How is this client side rewrite every few months fundamentally different from the broken window fallacy? as in, unsustainable because it adds no value overall?
Ah, yes, that's the crux of it. We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. Well, too bad! Here's the uncomfortable truth: the moment you let yourself get too comfortable, your career dries up. That fear is a powerful motivator, so I suggest internalizing it. If you can't force yourself to love learning, then become afraid that if you don't learn it you'll find yourself unemployable after 5 years.
This almost happened to me, so I'm speaking from direct experience. I came from gamedev, and low level skills like that really do not translate into "I'm getting paid $INSANE/yr in a hot new startup." In fact, you can barely pass webdev interviews because you have to go "Uhh... Yeah, I worked on Rails back in 2007 or so. I guess I have some learning to do. But just trust me, I can learn it as I go. Oh wait, you don't believe me? But... I've spent my whole life learning as I go... It's fine if I don't already know Rails even though you're hiring for a senior rails dev position."
That situation is exactly what happens when you stop being on top of all this stuff. Go to sleep and wake up 5 years later and suddenly getting a job is hard. It's easy to smirk ad feel like it won't happen to you, but FWIW the way you feel about JS now is exactly how I felt about Rails in 2007.