"There are or course other ways of forcing file downloads, such as adding certain configuration to your .htaccess file, but I think server-side solutions to front-end problems should be avoided whenever possible."
WOW. So http have the solution for that, but as you are lazy, you want to reinvent the wheel and do it on your own, forgetting that the fronting you are talking about is running over http.
The http header have a few years now (Content-Disposition). It is not related at all with apache (even if you mention a way to configure apache).
You give a service to the client, not just a pile of frontend. If you don't know how to do it, hire some people that knows how the webservers and http world works!. But what you are saying is that without understanding how http works, and without any interest on learning it, you want the world to change to your needs. Isn't it?
I'm not entirely sure that I've grasped all of what you're saying here, but the download attribute is in the WHATWG HTML specification, and can hardly be considered OP himself trying to reinvent the wheel.
WOW. So http have the solution for that, but as you are lazy, you want to reinvent the wheel and do it on your own, forgetting that the fronting you are talking about is running over http.
The http header have a few years now (Content-Disposition). It is not related at all with apache (even if you mention a way to configure apache).
You give a service to the client, not just a pile of frontend. If you don't know how to do it, hire some people that knows how the webservers and http world works!. But what you are saying is that without understanding how http works, and without any interest on learning it, you want the world to change to your needs. Isn't it?