[H12]

Counterpoint: The article is titled "HTML First" not "HTML Only"

Admittedly I had the same reaction you did as I was reading the article. All I could think was how poorly these approaches would scale when the need arose for even modest ly complex state management.

While the body of the article doesn't address this, IMO the title does. I think it's generally good advice to suggest only reaching for the tools intended for complex environments when they become necessary, not before.