Is that just as readable? Is the intent just as clear? Is the improved readability of the jQuery version worth the extra 80kb download to you?
EDIT: Regarding the polyfill, now you are beginning to write your own little jQuery clone.
EDIT: Regarding the polyfill, now you are beginning to write your own little jQuery clone.
Why is that a worthwhile goal?
A polyfill is something that's not needed at all in modern browsers and thus can be considered pretty much final. jQuery is actually surprisingly stable compared to Angular/React/npm/rest-of-the-hipster-crap, but it has had its fair share of incompatibilities too.