I think it's not so bad if you organize things reasonably well and minimize "lemme just modify the DOM a wee bit here" hacks. jQuery was popular at a time when "cowboy programming" was very common, leading to a lot of really bad/difficult jQuery apps; but that wasn't strictly jQuery's fault, as such.
That said, front-end frameworks can of course be a better choice for many things, even if it's just because it provides this kind of organisation by default making it easier for the, ehm, less organized devs.
That said, front-end frameworks can of course be a better choice for many things, even if it's just because it provides this kind of organisation by default making it easier for the, ehm, less organized devs.