When all I want to do is read content, no JS is needed.

I didn't say otherwise.

UX is problematic because now you have these huge PC screens and comparatively tiny mobile screens to account for. Most developers go for mobile first and completely ignore the rest, so you have loads of sites that are needlessly displayed like slow powerpoint presentations, autoscrolling to the next anchor because that's "good UX" somehow.

Okay? I'm not sure what you're arguing against. Some websites have bad UX, and that means the technology used to implement that bad UX is in itself bad?

Form validation with JS goes back decades and no one in their right minds relies entirely on frontend validation.

I didn't say anyone should rely entirely on frontend validation.

It's great because it can be immediate, but it's easier to sidestep either by accident or on purpose. Since a lot of forms nowadays are "autogenerated" from their respective UI libraries, they come with a lot of unnecessary cruft.

Again, what exactly are you arguing for or against? You said "don't use JavaScript when you don't need it". You don't need frontend validation, it's a nice to have, but it would be incredibly stupid to say "this form is way better without frontend validation".

I sure hope that doesn't need a "local server" of any sort to work. It's one of the things that baffles me the most, javascript that only works with a npm server to connect to. I also hope it's not bundled as an electron app, what's the point of having an entire chrome browser bundled just to run a single page?

No, the single HTML file I'm talking about doesn't require a server or Electron or anything besides a browser. What are you on about?

You either seem to be willfully misunderstanding me, or you're projecting a bunch of random webdev grievances onto me. Why?