If I had my way I would still be writing ASP.NET WebForms, but the market decided to move. I don't even know if it still works.

Hot take but: it took 20 years for Next.js to catch up to 10% of WebForms offered.

But if people want whatever Next.js offers to build their copycat SaaS with shadcn/ui, so who am I to argue.

Kind of frustrating to watch indeed. Have similar complaints for GUI apps on the desktop, really feels we went backwards from building great GUIs in 10 minutes using WYSIWYG to never really seeing the GUI until it compiles a bunch of XML and you somehow hope it will match what is needed.

Productivity is now wasted trying to make sure that buttons work when pressed or scratching the heads why box is not aligned with another programatically.

> if people want

You mean many developers want. Actual customers, the ones who pay for your work don't even know what Next.js is and are extremely happy with whatever works. The hard part is to sell the idea that - no, next.js is not the best for your SEO heavy website :)

Actually it’s what founders want, technical and non-technical ones.

I’ve been in situations where a non-technical founder asked me to use Angular just to fit in.

With technology becoming about trends, clueless founders more and more are pushing for certain technologies.

Recruitment and developers just follow.