I think all the churn is a sign of several problems. First, the language was not designed to do what people are trying to use it for. Second, I question whether the framework makers are familiar with "native" UI APIs (e.g. Java, Qt, NextStep), which solved a lot of these problems years ago. Notice the lack of churn in native UI APIs (exception of Microsoft). Third, it seems like the frameworks try to build on top of HTML, which I think is a mistake, because HTML was not designed for layout flexibility and pixel-perfectness (unlike native widget APIs). Furthermore, HTML was poorly designed for anything but simple word-processor documents: why is there no <block> element that is inline-block?! That's the first thing I end up assigning to everything. But the whole declare-your-document approach is inherently too simplistic for much beyond a word-processor document. Note that PostScript, and PDF which is an enhancement, has been pretty stable and standard for years, which indicates it is a good solution to the problem. Ultimately, you need to be able to program your documents and put pixels exactly where you want them. But even just sending over a blank HTML page and then having JavaScript add everything programmatically is probably better-suited, despite having to ultimately get squeezed into the HTML approach.
In my opinion, we need to realize that webapps are not documents, and document-oriented HTML is the wrong tool. I don't think things will get better until we start looking at webapps as essentially drawing on the screen, like native UI APIs. I think we need a standardized virtual machine, like a lightweight JVM (or, better, a heavyweight Lua), which would allow people to use whatever language they prefer, as long as it can compile onto the instruction set. Static-type people can use a statically-typed language, and dynamic types can use dynamically-typed languages. Make an instruction set that maps well onto native CPU instructions, and provide well-thought out input and drawing primitives. We essentially need a PostScript for apps.
In my opinion, we need to realize that webapps are not documents, and document-oriented HTML is the wrong tool. I don't think things will get better until we start looking at webapps as essentially drawing on the screen, like native UI APIs. I think we need a standardized virtual machine, like a lightweight JVM (or, better, a heavyweight Lua), which would allow people to use whatever language they prefer, as long as it can compile onto the instruction set. Static-type people can use a statically-typed language, and dynamic types can use dynamically-typed languages. Make an instruction set that maps well onto native CPU instructions, and provide well-thought out input and drawing primitives. We essentially need a PostScript for apps.