> We can do so much with HTML 5 and CSS 3 already. The argument is to not use React or similar, when a simpler way using standard conform means is available.
There are no simple ways to build UIs available in HTML5 and CSS3.
It has neither state handling, nor reactivity, nor any APIs that don't make you tear you hair out (or build another lib/framework).
It's a horrendously bad half-low-level half-high-level API with hundreds of one-off solutions and special cases that form no coherent whole.
You still can't reliably animate adding to and deleting items from a list without hacks because even if you so much as look at DOM, it will re-layout and re-draw the entire document.
It still has no collection of well-specified built-in controls beyond a few primitive ones. https://open-ui.org/ is about twenty years too late.
But sure, you can finally put items in grids now. I guess that's nice. But when you need a dialog element you need copious amounts of hacky Javascript to make it properly accessible. Go figure.
People have built "UIs" on websites for decades, without the current flavor of SPA web frameworks. It is actually very easy to put things like a navigation and forms and such things on a website. Most websites do not need more than that. They merely show some information. Maybe you can register through a form or login through a form to see some more information. Not every website needs to be a SPA. The use-case you are apparently relating to, the one of websites really needing a more complex desktop-like UI, is merely a small percentage of websites. If you find yourself building a SPA on every second project, then you are most likely just following hype.
If you find yourself wanting to put dialogs on a website, consider showing information in a different way, more appropriate to the web. Work on your assumptions of how things must be done and some problems will disappear without ever having to write gnarly code.
Aside from that, writing a dialog is really not that difficult. I've done that before and I didn't need any framework to do it. Just don't rely on its modality for security, obviously, because one does not rely on frontend code for security anyway. Element zapper will make short work out of any dialog, that tries to block the stuff underneath it.
Ultimately the browser is not the desktop. It has a different use-case. Too many people do not understand this and try to shoehorn things into being "like on the desktop". Write desktop programs, if you want the desktop (not Electron shit ...). Write websites, if you want the web and the browser. Both have their own quirks and complications. Trying to force one into the other will only lead to more complications. Good design pays attention to the medium.
> Aside from that, writing a dialog is really not that difficult.
Tell me you've never built a proper accessible dialog without telling you've never built one.
> Too many people do not understand this and try to shoehorn things into being "like on the desktop".
I can empathise with this sentiment because I've expressed it myself many times. However, that ship has sailed and the platform has not adjusted in the least.
There are no simple ways to build UIs available in HTML5 and CSS3.
It has neither state handling, nor reactivity, nor any APIs that don't make you tear you hair out (or build another lib/framework).
It's a horrendously bad half-low-level half-high-level API with hundreds of one-off solutions and special cases that form no coherent whole.
You still can't reliably animate adding to and deleting items from a list without hacks because even if you so much as look at DOM, it will re-layout and re-draw the entire document.
It still has no collection of well-specified built-in controls beyond a few primitive ones. https://open-ui.org/ is about twenty years too late.
But sure, you can finally put items in grids now. I guess that's nice. But when you need a dialog element you need copious amounts of hacky Javascript to make it properly accessible. Go figure.