The DOM loaded event can take a while to fire, there's no need to wait for it but then you end up either sprinkling your html with script tags or firing a script just before the end body tag. i.e. maintenance nightmare for the former, what's the point for the latter? Neither much better than just waiting for dom loaded.

If it is taking a while to fire, better to solve that problem than piss around with a half built page in my experience. I experimented at one point with js enhancing controls just after they were declared, it's honestly not worth the effort. He'll learn.

This smacks of the bootstrap semi-colon nonsense, we all tried semi-colonless once, it ends up a nightmare, but some mistakes the next generation need to figure out themselves.