I feel there is a difference between all the domains you mention and frontend in that once you have made your choice regarding a single vendor or technology, very few vastly different avenues are left for starting a project. One example:
1) "How to start a Java project" - very vague, the article will arrive at your doorstep in book form as there are tons of possible ways depending on the use case
2) "How to start a REST API backend in Java" - a handful of bigger contenders are left on the table; some feature and performance comparisons could be handy
3) "How to start a REST API backend using Spring Boot" - a focused set of steps that leaves you with a controller class that will happily greet the user when a GET request is sent towards its general direction. I don't really want to explore the possibility of creating an application using NetBeans Platform or whatever at this point.
Here the casual reader might think that we are at level 3, but it seems that it's closer to level 1.
Once you choose any of those frameworks listed that support it, creating a REST api is trivial and very well documented within many. Likewise, they almost all prescribe recommended solutions for many other things.
That we have a wealth of good solutions is amazing, and it feels like people will find anything to complain about. If we had just a couple it’s lock-in or bad ecosystem. When you have a lot it’s messy and stupid.
It feels like a communist Russian coming to a US grocery store in the 80s and concluding it’s ridiculous they have too many choices how can they ever decide what to eat.
As a mostly backend java developer and occasional frontend developer: every spring boot backend looks mostly the same, but every react frontend seems to look and work completely different. Sure, maybe there's a different library for db access or messaging or whatever used on the backend, but the general patterns are the same. Since React doesn't have any of the other pieces required for an app built in everyone glues together a hodgepodge to solve the same problems.
