How I Build JavaScript Apps In 2021

Lots in here that resonates with my own feelings on similar topics:

I still remember the debates with colleagues about using babel a few years ago. Within the front end development world, transpiling had just become a thing, so we ended up babelifying our builds to use ES6. Our argument back then was that one day, we would be able to push our application's directory structure on a web server and since all browsers would then support the augmented ES6 features, our app would just work! Without a build process. WOW! That must have been around 2015. When I look at the source code of these old applications now, our technical visions didn't end up becoming reality.

Looking back, I do find it interesting how babel was thought of (at least in some regards) as a polyfill: use it to write the latest and greatest and then, one day, simply remove it. [Narrator voice] but transpiling is a dangerous drug.

I also try to avoid transpiling. It's not because I don't like ESNext features, but more because I want to minimize the risk of getting stuck with the transpiler.