Ask HN: JavaScript-Less DOM as a GUI System?

Over the past several years, whenever I re-assess the best options for GUI frameworks, I find myself looking for something that doesn’t exist: an HTML and CSS renderer that can be directly manipulated using local app code. I’ve worked with Electron and I’ve seen Tauri; I mean something different. I mean something with an API for direct DOM manipulation, allowing for cross-platform GUI development without including a JS runtime or a web server. Ideally, a solution would leverage an existing renderer, e.g. Blink’s or WebKit’s, but I can’t seem to find a way to isolate just the rendering parts of these systems. Is this possible, or is web rendering just too entwined with JS and HTTP for this to be realistic?