Someone explain to me why you _need_ JavaScript to build a text website?
Personally I use Next/React along with all the fun stuff that goes with it for basic personal sites because it’s the same stack I use at my day job and I can be productive quickly. The skills are transferable, I frequently learn something while working on a personal project that I can apply to a work project, and vice versa. That part is very valuable to me.
Are the big projects using Next because it's useful or because it's trendy? (Maybe that's the wrong word, it's "trendy" with some staying power, like Apple.) Sometimes, particularly when caught in a difficult upgrade cycle, Next is more trouble than it's worth. I'm don't know if that's the case now.
It is a marketable skill, that's for sure. I just don't know if you should choose a framework just because it's popular.
I've use almost most frameworks out there over decades, currently Next feels like the most productive. My wish list for it includes better static typing of api routes like trpc. A first class solution, like DI maybe for structuring backend code and accessing it via api or props.
Yes, isomorphic JS.
With React it can be annoying if you have a component that you never intended to run on the server and you get a hydration warning. It also complicates the decision of what language to use on the backend. It is often useful though.
> To address the React-sized elephant in the room: you do not need this fancy setup to build a blog. HTML and CSS may be a better choice for you, but I'd find little fun in that, and I'm a strong believer in having a website to experiment with.