> 97.2% of web projects were all about making an application server talk nicely to a relational database and then generating a front end that reflected the data model and that had javascript that Just Worked (everywhere).
Mobile and mobile-first thinking, perhaps. "webdev" is far more js-driven than it was 10-15 years ago. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad, but imo that accounts for much of the difference. 15 years ago I could build entire applications with a minimum of JS, and they were acceptable to clients. That's not really the case any more - there's more demand/need/expectation of js in web projects today.
The need to talk to relational database is, ime, as strong as ever, while the need for supplemental data stores is growing, but is rarely the primary focus for any system already in existence.
> there's more demand/need/expectation of js in web projects today
On the backend too?
There are headless Rails applications. Is that what you are talking about? If I understand it correctly, it's essentially a Rails server that exposes an API that a Javascript client uses.
okay so to achieve a good mobile experience, you need a responsive layout and some sort of pjax rendering. That still doesn't explain the massive weight of current front-end solutions.
Yup, but why? This is still true:
> 97.2% of web projects were all about making an application server talk nicely to a relational database and then generating a front end that reflected the data model and that had javascript that Just Worked (everywhere).