This is exactly what I think happened. They came from environments were things were much more complicated and pushed that complexity onto web development.
Unfortunately that sentiment is just backend developer elitism. The DOM, frontend state, backend state, and networking end up creating considerable complexity once you start creating more dynamic web applications.
The frontend is essentially a black box for most developers, even most frontend developers. No wonder it’s hated.
I’m not a backend developer. I’ve been working on the front end since 1996.