I saw another post that, paraphrased, said "See this framework for creating a web site these days has like 8 technology layers and this is why no one creates web sites anymore."
Ok, stop. Listen. Those frameworks are not designed for you. They are designed for company projects aimed at creating web applications. They are there to make lives easier for web devs who are paid to make these projects.
The complex technology stacks were made for complex projects. That's all. (cont'd)
And if you want to make a simple website with no CSS or JavaScript? That was never taken away from anyone. The existence of an advanced tech stack does not rob anyone's ability to make a web page.
The web definitely is a complex beast. What works for one group or person doesn't work for everyone. If there's one thing that has remained true, you have the ability to do pretty much whatever you want with the web.
You can even make a glittery site with dancing santas in the background if you want.
I guess one more thing to add to this: the post in question was citing an extreme example of a framework that required a lot of moving parts to demonstrate that web development has gotten too complex.
My counter to this is there are degrees of complexity. A little CSS can go a long way towards creating a polished looking website. And that's in the browser. No toolkit required.
A lot of things you used to need JavaScript for are now handled by HTML/CSS.
"Ah, but what if I want to create a web site that does more than just sit there and look pretty?"
OK, now you're adding complexity to your requirements. Want a button that does something useful? You'll need a server-side script to handle the POST request. That was true in the 1990s. It's still true now.
And if you want the results of your action to persist? Welp, you need a database. Again, this is as true now as it was in the 90s.
Also, be mindful of security vulnerabilities in your app.
Oh, and don't forget about accessibility. Now you can do accessibility with vanilla HTML and CSS manually. You can probably get away with it without a single line of Javascript, but chances are you might have to resort to some JS to help out in some contexts. The situation does improve with each passing year but you still need to keep it in mind when you develop your web app.
However, if you work at an organization that develops web apps professionally, these topics pop up regularly. They do so much so that they start looking for ways to automate or streamline the process every time they spin up a new project.
And that's how you start looking into frameworks. Those things make your life easier when working in a complex project with multiple groups of people. Separation of concerns only becomes possible with a properly architected technology stack.
So next time you see a framework with eight layers of technology and think "Gah, web development is too hard. No wonder no one makes web sites anymore", just remember that they exist as a solution only because they made someone's task easier.
Your use case differs from theirs however, so look for something more simple if it suits your needs.
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