Aspects of modern HTML/CSS you may not be familiar with

> Yes, the syntax isn’t the prettiest, but is it really that hard?

Explain float: clear?

Does that have anything to do with display: flow-root?

And white-space is not actually whitespace?

And when does vertical-align work vs not?

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^ That is all CSS (and not particularly edgy CSS, except for flow-root).

So....yes, CSS is really that hard. Unless you use the subset of CSS that you have decided to learn + use. Not unlike C++.

I haven't used float in at least half a decade. CSS is easy.

I suspect, as with programming languages, some people think in a way that makes it easy for them and others think in a way that makes it hard.

Personally -- and I'm no web dev, so I probably don't count -- I think CSS is hard (maybe more irritating than hard, but in any case I wouldn't call it easy). In large part because the syntax is ugly, but also because it just doesn't "mesh" with me. If I'm reading it or writing it, I always feel like I'm having to decode it. But I can easily and happily work with some programming languages that most devs would cross the street to avoid.

Maybe that's also why some people are attracted to being web devs and others aren't?

As a user, nothing would thrill me more than if web pages just stopped using JS, though, so I am very happy that there is a feasible alternative to doing that that web devs could enjoy!

> I suspect, as with programming languages, some people think in a way that makes it easy for them and others think in a way that makes it hard.

No that often isn't the case. What is usually the case is that people don't bother the learning the basics. CSS is very easy. You can literally mess about with it on the fly in the browser and instantly see the result.

It is easier now than it has ever been. Since all the browsers for the most part implement the standards properly. Safari is the only standout and all the issues with that are well known.

> In large part because the syntax is ugly, but also because it just doesn't "mesh" with me. If I'm reading it or writing it, I always feel like I'm having to decode it. But I can easily and happily work with some programming languages that most devs would cross the street to avoid.

It is probably because you haven't learned the basics.

Whenever anyone has issues understanding CSS, they haven't bothered learning the basics and think they can flub their way through doing it.

I don't understand what is ugly about the syntax.

    <some element selector> {
        property_1: <some value>
        property_2: <some other value>
    }

It is about as straight forward as it could be. The difficulty with CSS is organisation as the web app becomes larger. There are well documented strategies on how to do this.

> As a user, nothing would thrill me more than if web pages just stopped using JS, though, so I am very happy that there is a feasible alternative to doing that that web devs could enjoy!

Non-trivial functionality requires JS. Basic Websites rarely require JS. So I am not sure what you are trying to say here.