It is apparent to me that learning frameworks is an excuse for JavaScript developers to never learn what the corresponding technologies are.
For example many web developers have no idea what the DOM is. They have no idea why they should learn it, what it means to their work, or why things work in a certain way. It is important to understand that the DOM is the standard and there are no choices or alternatives. There is only the one standard interface and every corresponding abstraction compiles to this standard.
Performance is one benefit to understanding what this technology is. You can literally improve execution speed of your application at least more than a thousand times faster and in some cases up to 16 billion times faster. This is not an exaggeration. I have seen these numbers myself from testing using perf tools. I have seen developers twist themselves into knots to justify why their favorite abstraction is more important than such performance gains, even when gifted the evidence thereof.
Another benefit is that you can do things, very easily, that many abstractions will not allow you to do. There is a capability called walking the DOM where from any point on a DOM tree you can relatively navigate to another other point and account for all manners of variability in between.
A really big benefit is employment. Knowing how these technologies actually work has always put me at the top of employment preference. When I applied for the last job I was the number one hiring choice out of 72 interviewers (possibly hundreds of resumes). Before that job I have also been at or very near the number one consideration out of a pool of several dozen candidates for each of the past several jobs. There is something unarguable about actually knowing some minimal level of competency around the technologies that comprise your platform. On the other hand, avoiding frameworks has never prevented me from attaining employment or cost me a job opportunity.
For example many web developers have no idea what the DOM is. They have no idea why they should learn it, what it means to their work, or why things work in a certain way. It is important to understand that the DOM is the standard and there are no choices or alternatives. There is only the one standard interface and every corresponding abstraction compiles to this standard.
Performance is one benefit to understanding what this technology is. You can literally improve execution speed of your application at least more than a thousand times faster and in some cases up to 16 billion times faster. This is not an exaggeration. I have seen these numbers myself from testing using perf tools. I have seen developers twist themselves into knots to justify why their favorite abstraction is more important than such performance gains, even when gifted the evidence thereof.
Another benefit is that you can do things, very easily, that many abstractions will not allow you to do. There is a capability called walking the DOM where from any point on a DOM tree you can relatively navigate to another other point and account for all manners of variability in between.
A really big benefit is employment. Knowing how these technologies actually work has always put me at the top of employment preference. When I applied for the last job I was the number one hiring choice out of 72 interviewers (possibly hundreds of resumes). Before that job I have also been at or very near the number one consideration out of a pool of several dozen candidates for each of the past several jobs. There is something unarguable about actually knowing some minimal level of competency around the technologies that comprise your platform. On the other hand, avoiding frameworks has never prevented me from attaining employment or cost me a job opportunity.