Yeah, this is what some commenters are missing. The real alternative to jQuery isn't some fancy new framework, it's just... plain JavaScript.

Things have really gotten much better in the vanilla world. Although some things remain more verbose or cumbersome than jQuery alternatives, you really don't need a whole layer of abstraction to handle the simple tasks jQuery was designed for any more.

Unless, of course, you care about IE...

jQuery somehow gets abuse for being more bloated and slower than vanilla js despite the fact that almost nobody is ditching jQuery for vanilla js and instead running to vastly slower and more bloated SPA frameworks.

Did this comment onwards miss

"I did my last small project with vanilla js and the ugliness of the native APIs reminded my how lovely jQuery is" or am I seeing wonky here

Yes, but the native APIs are a PITA.