Fair enough, it's clearly not the right tool for everyone. HTML-over-the-wire works well for server-rendered apps where the primary interaction is fetching and displaying content. For highly interactive UIs with complex client-side state, a proper SPA framework is the better choice. Different problems, different tools.
That said, the vast majority of websites are purely transactional: click a link, load a page; submit a form, load a page. For those, there's little reason to add a full frontend framework. HTML-over-the-wire can improve responsiveness without adding complexity.
That said, the vast majority of websites are purely transactional: click a link, load a page; submit a form, load a page. For those, there's little reason to add a full frontend framework. HTML-over-the-wire can improve responsiveness without adding complexity.