That's a rather negative take on it. I'd argue instead that the explosion in frameworks is a result of a broad interest in developing and experimenting with new approaches to providing applications. Web applications are typically network-aware, real-time, cross-platform and easily-updated; the basic technologies (HTML, CSS and Javascript) are easy to start using, and in some ways extraordinarily flexible.
I don't think that these are actually solved problems, and the web as an application platform can play a part in changing that.
Further, the whole concept of "patching up" a platform to "do something it wasn't born to do" is misleading. Every computing device you use has it's roots in older software that was developed without being intended to perform the tasks it currently is - we stand on the shoulders of giants.
The web as an application platform is still in its infancy, and we're currently playing around with a lot of different approaches - some will live, and some will die. It's how we make progress, after all.
I agree that's a rather negative take on it, but I can't help. Working on web development for almost 15 years has washed away my sugarcoat ;)
Frontend web development is still absolutely painful and ugly. It's based on a broken paradigm (hypertext vs. interactive interfaces); relies on hacks for fundamentals (XMLHttpRequest is probably the best example); multiple standards pushed by organizations with special interests (remember having to encode video in 4 different formats?); is labour and time-intensive; tooling is still catching up with the 80's.
None of those, in isolation, are big problems though. The big problem is that, because you can always patch everything up with some javascript, there's no drive to have a platform that rests on top of more sound fundamentals - condemning ourselves to an endless cycle of frameworks.
I don't think that these are actually solved problems, and the web as an application platform can play a part in changing that.
Further, the whole concept of "patching up" a platform to "do something it wasn't born to do" is misleading. Every computing device you use has it's roots in older software that was developed without being intended to perform the tasks it currently is - we stand on the shoulders of giants.
The web as an application platform is still in its infancy, and we're currently playing around with a lot of different approaches - some will live, and some will die. It's how we make progress, after all.