Lately I've been doing some web development on a fairly long-lived and large code-base
Therein lies the problem. I've been doing web development for 22 years and it's only just now getting good. React-like apps (I actually use Mithril) give you a much better understanding of how the app gets into a particular state when compared to jQuery.
Web programming on your typical long-lived large code base really is that bad, but start from scratch with something React-like and you'll have a much better experience.
Absolutely. I feel like we're on the cusp of greatness -- between evergreen browsers, flexbox, Typescript, React/Redux, and Webpack my frontend experience has never been better.
Therein lies the problem. I've been doing web development for 22 years and it's only just now getting good. React-like apps (I actually use Mithril) give you a much better understanding of how the app gets into a particular state when compared to jQuery.
Web programming on your typical long-lived large code base really is that bad, but start from scratch with something React-like and you'll have a much better experience.