Modern JS is pretty clean and the native DOM methods are actually very pleasant generally. You can get really far without even needing a package manager, but eventually something like npm becomes useful if bulky.
For me, minimal web development means doing as much as I can at the server. This includes tracking client UI state if feasible. The more stuff you have in 1 domain like that the easier it becomes to control complexity.
When your state machine is split between 2 realms is when you get into traps that things like React were created to resolve.
I found it more thorough and challenging than others I've tried, but it doesn't assume any knowledge of JavaScript.
var element = document.querySelector(...)
var elements = document.querySelectorAll(...)