I feel the same way about using websockets to get SPA-like interactivity; Blazor Server in the .NET world is similar. htmx peeked my interest though, as I can see the appeal of the LiveView/Blazor/Hotwire approach, but would still prefer inexpensive HTTP requests for most use-cases.
Dont forget Blazor works on the client too via WASM. As for expensive, the claim to fame for Liveview is that it is very minimalist over the wire. It is not sending html chunks like in standard AJAX from the mid 2000s.
