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I would say in 2025, it has become exponentially more complex, not simpler:

1. The ecosystem has fragmented further. Every app uses even more tools and frameworks, each with its own quirks and version incompatibilities

2. With E2EE and blockchain-based apps becoming mainstream, the frontend now handles complex cryptographic operations, key management, and secure data handling entirely client-side. Mistakes here are security vulnerabilities

3. Advanced interactions, personalization, and real-time updates require sophisticated client-side computation. We're beyond "thin clients"

4. The Big 4 invest $millions in each interface and users expect the same level of UX/UI from anyone. Let's talk about simplicity on the surface :)



> The ecosystem has fragmented further. Every app uses even more tools and frameworks, each with its own quirks and version incompatibilities

I disagree, at least partially. When this article was written, one of the biggest difficulties with front-end development was browser incompatibilities. Front-end developers were deploying to a hostile, inconsistent environment.

Things have gotten much better on that front. Browser support for standards is much better. People upgrade to the latest versions much more quickly. Systems that transcode from modern style to backwards compatible style, like Babel, TypeScript, Lightning CSS, or PostCSS, are commonplace.

The end result is that front-end developers are far more able to target modern APIs and functionality without worrying about compatibilities anywhere near as much. The browser environment has become much more consistent and capable.

Do some developers overcomplicate things with monstrous WebPack configs? They sure do. But the important thing is that they chose that. If you want to keep a super-simple build, you can do that too. You have the choice of how complicated your stack is; you don’t have a choice of how complicated the browser environment is.

> With E2EE and blockchain-based apps becoming mainstream

Blockchain isn’t mainstream, and hardly any front-end developers need to care about E2EE.

> Advanced interactions, personalization, and real-time updates require sophisticated client-side computation. We're beyond "thin clients"

This is marketing speak that doesn’t reflect the day-to-day work of a front-end developer.

> The Big 4 invest $millions in each interface and users expect the same level of UX/UI from anyone. Let's talk about simplicity on the surface :)

What do accounting firms have to do with this?




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