Next.js is infuriating

Half these issues stem from a relative misunderstanding of exactly where the code is running. Next.js has layers upon layers upon layers due to the interplay between the browser, middleware, edge vs. node, SSR... It's an enormous amount of complexity and it really only fits under the following set of circumstances:

  * You sell a B2C product to a potentially global audience, so edge semantics actually help with latency issues
  * You're willing to pay Vercel a high premium for them to host
  * You have no need for background task processing (Vercel directs you to marketplace/partner services), so your architecture never pushes you to host on another provider.

Otherwise, just tread the well-trod path and stick to either a react-vite SPA or something like Rails doing ordinary SSR.

I wouldn't say I agree with those circumstances, but even if they did indicate a match with Next.js, they are not worth the reduction in productivity and maintainability that comes with it.

I use Gleam's Lustre and am not looking back. Elm's founder had a really good case study keynote that Next.js is basically the opposite of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl1UQXgtepE

this is a really interesting talk - thank you for sharing!