I don't think the author of this article actually understands the pressures that increasingly drive all frontend development into javascript frameworks, but those pressures are actually very straightforward:
• A large portion of the cost of maintaining a code repository goes toward maintaining the build.
• Multiple builds per repo create significant costs.
• Any web application with a UI _requires_ a frontend build for CSS/JS. Anyone around from the JQuery/pre-SASS days will recall the mess that lack of things like dependency management and ability to control import order caused.
• If the frontend build is already baked into the process, you can save costs by _only_ using a frontend build.
• SPA patterns are the easiest to use with a frontend build, have the most examples/comprehensive documentation.
• A large portion of the cost of maintaining a code repository goes toward maintaining the build.
• Multiple builds per repo create significant costs.
• Any web application with a UI _requires_ a frontend build for CSS/JS. Anyone around from the JQuery/pre-SASS days will recall the mess that lack of things like dependency management and ability to control import order caused.
• If the frontend build is already baked into the process, you can save costs by _only_ using a frontend build.
• SPA patterns are the easiest to use with a frontend build, have the most examples/comprehensive documentation.