Not really to be honest. The web does a lot more today than just transmit text documents. SPAs are overused and generally too bloated, but the idea that JS is not necessary (or should not be necessary) is a non starter.
Compared to Google Maps it was the Stone Age. I get it, a lot of sites use an unnecessary amount of JS and bog down the user. But there are very clear benefits to having JS in browsers.
Different tasks should use different methods.