Improving HTML just isn't a possibility as a developer.

When you develop an app, it's for now and not for 10 years into the future when it has finally been standardized, reviewed, accepted and implemented in all browsers as well as having all the older, non-compatible versions disappear.

We're 25 years into HTML and applying form validation only after an initial input (so as to not display a form filled with red input fields) still isn't a thing.

Hell, even regular form validation still is only applied on form submission and lots of browser versions still aren't compatible.

That's after 25 years of <form> tag existence.

So no, every time somebody talks about the complexity of frontend development and how everybody should stop using JavaScript and use pure CSS and HTML, they forget that the technologies are hot garbage that evolves at the pace of snail.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7920742/delay-html5-inva... doesn’t show the red until you enter text.

This solution sadly doesn't work for form elements without placeholders like <select>, checkboxes, radio buttons, date & number pickers, etc.

And checkboxes can still not be styled. But that's another one of the multiple problems in HTML and forms in particular ...

ECMAScript is part of the web platform. I wasn't making that strong of a statement. More specifically, I am saying we should build things to last and not throw out substantial work, such as standardization and accessibility, in the name of "modernity" (or similar buzzwords like "scalability".)

Longevity of technology simply isn't a concern in a ecosystem where everything else is moving at such a rapid pace.