> But I don't think it's a good idea to lump disparate things together under the rubric "JS frameworks". Saying "things like Angular or React" is not really saying much except that they're both written in the same programming language, IMO.

You're right; my underlying point was out of all of the frameworks or libraries I've tried that are supposed to abstract away from many aspects (DOM manipulation, AJAX calls, etc) I've found them being overly complex. I'll be more specific next time and expound on my thoughts.