> i think many people underestimate how requirements grow over time because our UI standards have gone up over time
I think you are overestimating how much 'UI standards' have gone up over time, actually. Nobody except for a small 'extremely online' set of people and control-freak designers care about all those complex UI/UX requirements. Users certainly don't care. They want fast-loading, responsive pages that get out of the way and don't drain their batteries or clog up their connection.
The other thing here is that approximately no one can actually tackle the complexity introduced by SPA frameworks and 'UI standards', and it's far more likely that they bungle it up and make giant, wasteful, UX pitfall-ridden apps. With server rendered pages, plain old HTML, and progressive enhancement, we at least have a better chance of producing something usable.
I think you are overestimating how much 'UI standards' have gone up over time, actually. Nobody except for a small 'extremely online' set of people and control-freak designers care about all those complex UI/UX requirements. Users certainly don't care. They want fast-loading, responsive pages that get out of the way and don't drain their batteries or clog up their connection.
The other thing here is that approximately no one can actually tackle the complexity introduced by SPA frameworks and 'UI standards', and it's far more likely that they bungle it up and make giant, wasteful, UX pitfall-ridden apps. With server rendered pages, plain old HTML, and progressive enhancement, we at least have a better chance of producing something usable.