In his article “Software in 2014” Tim Bray says about the present state of front-end development:
Thus, for actually building applications, you’re going to have to pick a higher-level framework. There are lots of them and they compete vigorously, it’s easy to poke around the Web and find knockouts and cage matches; one good high-level comparo is Rich JavaScript Applications – the Seven Frameworks (Throne of JS, 2012) but wait it’s eighteen months old thus probably now wrong, which is a symptom of the problem. “What problem,” you ask, “choice is good, right?” It is, but this isn’t an orderly choice, it’s a Cambrian Explosion. I’m sure the software archeologists of 2113 will enjoy studying it, but it’s a problem.
I completely agree, right down to the term “Cambrian Explosion”, and I ranted a bit about it in one of the few posts I wrote last year. Client-side development is a scary mess right now, where almost every choice you make stands a chance of blowing up in your face a year down the line.