I've done a lot of frontend work, including iOS, Android, MFC, OpenGL, Qt (with and without QML), etc... My UI work has often been praised, and I've salvaged many failing projects, including fixing completely broken UIs. I'm not sure where you got "not having to keep up with new UI technologies" or "downplaying the skills of front end programmers" from anything I said.
If anything, the frontend developers get a lot of credit for what the backend developers do. I enjoy backend work more, and it is frustrating when a GUI developer spends a few days and slaps a few screens on that update in response to signals that took months to implement, but they get all of the credit for the feature. It goes both ways, you know?
"anywhere from UI down to the bare metal"
I've done a lot of frontend work, including iOS, Android, MFC, OpenGL, Qt (with and without QML), etc... My UI work has often been praised, and I've salvaged many failing projects, including fixing completely broken UIs. I'm not sure where you got "not having to keep up with new UI technologies" or "downplaying the skills of front end programmers" from anything I said.
If anything, the frontend developers get a lot of credit for what the backend developers do. I enjoy backend work more, and it is frustrating when a GUI developer spends a few days and slaps a few screens on that update in response to signals that took months to implement, but they get all of the credit for the feature. It goes both ways, you know?