> Their avoidance of (and advocacy for continued avoidance of) new/trendy software fads, particularly on the frontend, enabled excellent engineering
I absolutely agree with that. You are describing an expert, which is not likely somebody successful or respected, particularly with regard to their front-end web technology peers. Expertise is not frequently revered by other developers, particularly when compared with compatibility. That distinction is even more evident when applying for jobs at other locations.
Maybe I've just been lucky with where I've worked, but I've often seen those people get significantly rewarded for their anti-fad efforts--both in terms of money/promotions and respect from their colleagues.
A complete disdain for jQuery is what allowed me, as a full time JavaScript developer, to become promoted to a senior and nearly double my salary. That is only because I was working, at the time, in a niche area where jQuery failed amazingly in production. I was deemed an expert and rewarded for it, but that is astonishingly rare. Now you cannot get hired, much less attain any kind of success, without something like Angular or React even you can write superior code without those in half the time. That is why I only look for jobs that primarily deal with writing for Node, but even still competence is not well appreciated when interviewing.
I absolutely agree with that. You are describing an expert, which is not likely somebody successful or respected, particularly with regard to their front-end web technology peers. Expertise is not frequently revered by other developers, particularly when compared with compatibility. That distinction is even more evident when applying for jobs at other locations.