Shitty ducktape-y standards (most notably JS that was initially designed in 10 days). But it still became the standard for x-platform SaaS UIs: point your browser to a URL and go!
So a lot was demanded of these shitty standards (HTML, CSS and JS) and in oder to push them to the max a lot of "frameworks" emerged helping you with that. First jQuery, then Knockout, ..., React, ...
> Is that complexity necessary or artificially inflated?
I'd say it's organically inflated: no one did it on purpose. Every one tries to make it simpler.
I'm a big fan of Elm, which GREATLY reduces the complexity or browser apps... for me.
And still I prefer server-side-rendered if possible (or I have to manage the state on both ends, which also increases complexity).
So a lot was demanded of these shitty standards (HTML, CSS and JS) and in oder to push them to the max a lot of "frameworks" emerged helping you with that. First jQuery, then Knockout, ..., React, ...
> Is that complexity necessary or artificially inflated?
I'd say it's organically inflated: no one did it on purpose. Every one tries to make it simpler.
I'm a big fan of Elm, which GREATLY reduces the complexity or browser apps... for me.
And still I prefer server-side-rendered if possible (or I have to manage the state on both ends, which also increases complexity).