Modern JS (actually TS) tooling has adopted a middle ground. There is an instant feedback - un-type-checked version that runs (typically used in dev mode) with instant-feedback/hot-reload, and a slower compile and build flow that builds for production.

I was initially not very convinced of the benefits - why have a type-checker if you won't use it in the small? But IDEs provide much of the benefit inline while writing code and this is seldom a real problem from the DX perspective.

My skepticism was unwarranted.