> You wouldn't know it from today's frontend discourse, but the modern era has never been without high-quality alternatives to React, Angular, Ember, and other legacy desktop-era frameworks.
"You wouldn't know it from today's frontend discourse"??? Seriously? Everybody and their dog know about those frameworks.
It feels like the first footnote was added in response to criticism from the reviewers of the drafts. It contradicts the body of the article and makes the whole thing incomprehensible.
The original article must have been a criticism of frontend frameworks in general. It points to the "sandy foundations" and frames all attempts at solutions as simply adding complexity - probably including all those new frameworks everybody talks about.