A frontend developer with 20+ years of experience outlines why single page applications (SPAs) are often a poor default choice for websites. Key criticisms include: routing that breaks native browser behavior and screen reader announcements, requiring manual reimplementation of page title management, reactive DOM changes that demand explicit ARIA and focus management not covered in major framework docs, JSX abstractions that obscure proper HTML semantics, component-based architectures that lose sight of coherent page structure, performance problems on average devices, and excessive complexity that prioritizes developer experience over user experience. The author acknowledges SPAs have valid use cases and that accessible SPAs are possible, but argues the default behavior is inaccessible by design and the 'better DX leads to better UX' justification rarely holds up in practice.
