I’ve settled on htmx not because I’m anti-JS, but to avoid Node/NPM, build steps, duplication of logic, etc. For me, it’s the ecosystem that’s problematic, not the language itself.

Also, “just learn JS” is a lazy and off-the-mark response to complaints about having to use JS. Do I prefer Python? Yes. However, I’ve pretty extensively learned and used JS, and I teach a full-stack JS bootcamp. I still think insisting that everyone has to write lots of JS __just_because__ it’s the language that got integrated into browsers is a bit tyrannical.