[ajjenkins]

A lot of custom front end components that I’ve built were more about aesthetics than functionality, so I agree that it’s often unnecessary. In terms of functionality, you can get really far using only native HTML elements.

One common front end component that you can’t build with vanilla HTML is an autocomplete/typeahead input. I’ve had to build a few of these in JavaScript and I do think they’re genuinely helpful. It’s helpful to get suggested options as you’re typing. I also think search results that get filtered in real time as you type are helpful and can’t be accomplished with pure HTML.