Totally, agree. And new HTML elements (like <dialog>) and CSS features (like MPA cross-document view transitions) have made client-side JavaScript unnecessary for a loot more use-cases in recent years. This is something a lot of devs unfortunately haven't caught up on, especially if they were stuck in their framework's tiny world.
This inspired me to explore what the simplest possible framework/site generator could be, that still has great DX: https://mastrojs.github.io/
Pretty dope stuff. My first thought with a finance tracker would have been “Dashboard? Interactivity? That’s a SPA.” Very pleased with your results.
I still do not see a future without javascript. If you are not using any external libraries, why not use it?
Left out of the post, but the stack is rails, turbo, and stimulus. Hosted on a 2016 MacBook Pro with a dead battery in my closet