You can redesign the website using modern technology and still make it insanely fast, probably even faster than its current state.
You can but no one manages to do that!
https://2019.jsconf.eu/news/how-we-built-the-fastest-confere...
Literally to post this comment, I got a, "We cannot serve requests that quickly please try again in a moment" message. Completely unnecessary in 2019, given how simple this site (as a concept) is.
"I hate change" <- basically the summary of this submission, and kind of sad.
As for concrete examples of the above, see lobste.rs for an excellent interface that's still minimal and responsive. Typing this comment on HN took me to a separate HTML page for absolutely no reason; Lobsters doesn't do that and allows you to write inline, preserving the context above.
Old Reddit (the only acceptable way to use Reddit) is another example of good JavaScript. Fuck the new redesign, but there are countless subtle and useful features in the old design that are only possible because of a tasteful use of JavaScript.
But that's not modern web development, that's jQuery-style coding. Modern web development is about heavyweight SPA frameworks like React or Angular.
That's a ratelimiting function to stop spammers and such. No one is questioning the ability of the servers to handle much higher request rates.
"I hate change" <- basically the summary of this submission, and kind of sad.
It's "I hate useless change". What's sad about that?