Are Javascript frameworks necessary?

The web development landscape has dramatically changed in the past 10 years. For developers who remember from the mid to late 2000s web development on the browser side using javascript was an ultimate pain in the neck as the then standard ES5 was limited in its functionality. This was until Jquery came along and helped address a lot of issues one of them being cross-browser compatibility. I personally liked working in Jquery as it helped enhance my productivity.

Along came the 2010s then now we could finally write Javascript on the server-side thanks to Node Js. Finally, developers could use the same language on the backend and frontend helping to ease the learning curve. Developers built modules on top of Node to be able to perform different functions and published them on NPM. Among these were modules for creating user interfaces using different patterns e.g Express, React, Vue e.t.c.

Over the years these Javascript frameworks have gained wide adoption in the developer community and most top companies include them as a necessary tool in their tech stack. It is undeniable that they have their benefit but the question I ask is why use them and are they necessary for every project?

ES6 introduced new features to the Javascript language whereby now we could use object oriented techniques on the browser and in addition browser APIs have been constantly improving with every effort being put by the different working groups to ensure there is standardization. Microsoft finally decided to pull the plug on Internet Explorer and switched to Edge which is based on chromium similar to what Google chrome runs on thereby enhancing compatibility. With the browser evolving would we still need to work with these frameworks?

The question is hard to answer depending on your perspective but what I would say is that it is always best to use the right tool for the job.