How it talks to the backend is irrelevant here. That has zero to do with the fact that the DOM was imply not designed for dynamic application layouts.

Sure DOM is retained mode graphics - however as I said, if you want to immediate mode - then canvas is available.

You do have a point, but then again, think about how many corpnet apps are web apps these days, even though the network is local.

Sure.

You also might not need any access control, network traffic security, cross platform deployment, instant install, evergreen updating, trivial UI integration ( links ) etc etc.

If you really want something simple you could use Excel, Access or Filemaker as a front end.

I agree life has got more complex - and in some cases unnecessarily so - case in point it's becoming increasingly hard to write web apps without SSL - even if you don't need it.