jQuery brought us cross-browser compatibility at a time when dealing with multiple browsers was a big PITA.<p>It also made it simple to interact with the DOM and provided capabilities in animation and such that were not yet available in css.<p>Bootstrap made it easy for non-designers to build nice looking sites. Sure, they all looked the same and it&#x27;s bloated, but it helped to handle layout for those who didn&#x27;t know better (the author could take some tips there).<p>So, if we look at these tools as introductions too, and provide people to quickly develop working sites better than they can without, is that so bad?<p>For high-quality production websites, these libraries and frameworks should be used in moderation, if at all.<p>I for one am thankful for jQuery, Bootstrap, Backbone and many others for continuing my education and helping me build sites that people enjoy using.<p>We&#x27;re now ripping out a bunch of Angular and Backbone on a project at work and going back to plain library free javascript and css (though we&#x27;re using sass, so not sure if I can say it is completely free).