And not just because they’re declarative. I’m currently working in an ecosystem of ~decade old JS projects. The imperative DOM stuff is of course a hassle, but the data flow is (predictably) all over the place. It takes a lot more discipline to keep data flow reasonable in an imperative UI. Modern declarative frameworks are generally opinionated about data flow (sometimes that’s their only opinion!).
Because they are afraid of the DOM and yell at each other about code style?
This is common, but it’s still very junior thinking.
The best way to minimize tech debt is to supply the most direct solution to a given problem and refactor along the way to bring similar solutions together into a single delivery. Decoration in the code is not that.
I am very familiar with the DOM and have no problem using the DOM apis. You seem to have no experience writing complex Web apps, and seem to give little thought to maintainability. I'd never hire you.
