Skeptical of rewriting JavaScript tools in "faster" languages

> Whereas if it’s written in a native language, I’d need to check out the source code and compile it myself – a big barrier to entry.

Is it though? Rust/Zig/Go programs are pretty much all incredibly easy to checkout and compile, it's one of the big selling points of those languages. And at the end of the day how often are javascript developers fixing the tooling they use even when it's written in javascript?

I've always felt learning new languages give me not only new tools to use but shapes the way I think about solving problems.

I agree with you on the easy part, but it’s definitely not as fast. In JS you get instant hot code reload and even without that the interpreter starts up pretty fast. In comparison Rust takes a while to recompile even with simple changes, and if you have more changes in many files (eg. switching between branches) then it’s really slow.