I always try to make HTML and CSS do the main work, while using HTML semantically. JS sprinkled on top where HTML/CSS won't perform the desired function (has gotten less over the years). And obviously server-side code where such a thing is needed.

But if I can get away with a static website that uses just HTML and CSS that is the baseline. And it has served me very well and produced very low (=zero) maintenance results.

The insane double think of web dev...

They want the benefits of a browser with the capabilities of native code. At some point you have to ask yourself would it not just be easier to do this in a normal programming language.