Reading some tech threads, I see someone state that the “web doesn’t run without JavaScript.”

True, in a sense, but also, strictly speaking, false. The bigger issue in my eyes is that this person’s perspective itself can be a problem, leading to over-engineering and heavier pages.

HTTP doesn’t need JS.

We used to do crazy things like “progressive enhancement.” That’s needed less now, but it also served to keep fundamentals front and center.

Lip service often gets paid to simplicity, but that lip service is likewise often undone by waves of JS dependencies.

In some ways, this also gets to the “web site” vs “web app” distinction — one that is also frequently lost under a pile of <script> tags.