We used to build very complex pre-ajax websites (iframes all the way) for the enterprise. So I can hear the author. It is not easier or cheaper or quicker to build and run and maintain exactly the same thing in 2019 (comparing to 2005) which also makes me wondering if the browser programming became the wheel invention exercise. Cmon, we dont have ie6 any more and you can actually debug js with the amazing tooling these days - solving browser quirks was the major PITA and time waster. So where the time goes now? Learning pecularities of a new fashionable framework which will be out of fashion in a few years.