The Digital Press

Websites have become overly complex, slow, and frustrating largely due to excessive and misapplied JavaScript, prioritizing developer convenience over user experience. This shift began around 2010, with an emphasis on making websites feel like apps but resulted in bloated, fragile sites that are hard to maintain and use.

Why it matters: Over-engineered JavaScript stacks degrade user experience, slow site performance, and increase costs and maintenance burdens.

The big picture: The web evolved from content-focused pages to complex app-like systems, sacrificing simplicity, accessibility, and speed.

The stakes: Marketers, SEOs, and users face locked-out workflows, delayed updates, broken features, and poor accessibility due to developer-centered design.

Commenters say: Many argue the problem isn’t JavaScript itself but poor developer practices and ecosystem complexity; some highlight that well-used JS enables powerful, efficient apps, while others stress the need for pragmatic, user-focused web development.