While I completely agree with most of this article. I think some of it is untrue. A lot of the new functionality is needed for a increasing amount of apps.

For example, I work on an app which wouldn't be possible on the web 5-10 years ago. It's a single page app because it needs to be. It uses a lot of javascript making many requests because we have to and the customers requires it. We could probably make it a lot faster, the issue is that the amount of functionality that we are trying to include in a short amount of time leaves us no other choice than to include yet another library etc.

I know this case maybe isn't the kind of app the article is targeting. But I think even "simple" apps today often include some part of complexity that would be hard(er) to do in a "old style" multi page app.

That being said, I use a lot of old style apps. I use the old reddit instead of the horrible new one. I use HN, I use fastmail so I do think speed is very important.