IDK about OP, but there are a ton of benefits to server side rendering:

1. Extremely good for cli power users and people who use console-based browsers occasionally (guilty of being both).

2. Less likely to stumble upon a really weird behavior in some browser, even the common ones.

3. Faster for anyone who doesn't have a server-grade workstation.

4. Server-side caching - play it smart and you can cache large chunks of the rendered pages, making it an extremely cheap operation to serve.

5. No 80mb javascript files you get on every "modern" website.

6. Easier to maintain.

Just a few off the top of my head.