Do I have to point out that "you can do X without Y" is never an interesting nor insightful statement? No shit! so? Does that mean you should do X without Y?
replies(3):
The real gradient is more like:
1) a SPA is needed because it might have to run offline
2) A SPA is extremely beneficial because the state of complex interactive are difficult to maintain on the server
3) A SPA helps because we have complex interactions and want to keep the server stateless
4) A SPA is used because we only have developers who haven't done it any other way and won't be fast enough trying something new
5) A SPA is strictly detrimental and ought not be used because there aren't any complex interactions and the added weight to processing / network traffic / etc overwhelm whatever justification we had.
This is not really novel, newsworthy or even worth yet another rambling blog post.