I've recentlt started working on a project where they store data / state in the ids of dom objects. Sometimes even something like dash separated strings that need to then be parsed.
I come from having done pretty much no Web development and this seems like a hateful way to do development.
It is, and basically the selling point of modern front end practices like APIs, state managed only in JS, SPAs, etc. Maybe this tech is overused in some cases, but it's vastly better than the "JavaScript Sauce" type development you describe.
I come from having done pretty much no Web development and this seems like a hateful way to do development.