It's definitely not about the environment. Yes, there are browser inconsistencies, but for the most part, this is not a major issue today. The problem of js apps is handling asynchronicity, having to fetch data from the server and managing UI state and in the case of an SPA, having to take care of routing, permissions, timeouts, errors etc. When you sum it all up, you end up with a front-end that mostly needs to replicate all logic from the server, apart from running the sql queries.
On the other side, when you render on the server, everything is already there. It's easy to write logic when the data you need is an sql query away and all you need to do is spit out some html. What gets a bit complex is keeping working state between pages and this usually requires handling sessions, cookies etc.
On the other side, when you render on the server, everything is already there. It's easy to write logic when the data you need is an sql query away and all you need to do is spit out some html. What gets a bit complex is keeping working state between pages and this usually requires handling sessions, cookies etc.