[devbent]

I am going build less for a recent project. The main difference for me is jsdoc vs typescript. There was a large initial learning curve, and the syntax is ugly, and having to duplicate all my TS types from the backend as JS doc types on the front end sucks, but at the end of the day it does work.

I was surprised how well module imports work in modern browsers.

I've never used css preprocessors before, so that wasn't an issue for me. I also have never nested CSS files, so that also wasn't an issue for me.

Another pain point is not having type safety on my front end calls to my backend. With TS I could use Zod on the front end as well and have type checks in place before I make those API calls. While obviously js doc tries to ensure at compile time that things are the correct shape, that isn't the same level of assurance.

[tacone]

You can use typescript on plain js files, just for type checking, without the need of a build.

[lyxell]

I guess you mean relying only on type inference? That will only get you so far. E.g. function parameters for freestanding functions would still be untyped. For those to be typed you need TypeScript or JSDoc annotations as OP noted.

[devbent]

I'm already enabling @ts-check so they the jsdocs actually do something!