I've used a bunch of different languages over my career from device+graphics libraries in assembly to windows apps to servers, web stacks and (recently) front-end. These days admittedly I do a lot of node development and while not a huge fan, its really so easy to get something up and running all the while using all the same tools and even the same modules on the front+back ends. When I run a build its the same gruntfile for the stack and UI, there's no fussing about getting disparate servers, paradigms and teams playing nicely and its small enough for me to get an entire application installed and running literally within a few minutes even on resource limited hardware like a rasberry pi - that creative freedom is brilliant! I can definitely rant about all the things that are bad about nodejs but as a prototyping tool or sideproject toy its really valuable.