Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was thinking this too. Forms never _needed_ Javascript to post. It's always worked this way. Am I missing something?
If I were to guess, it's probably because you learned HTML before JS. Those who learned JS first, or were never exposed fully to HTML, are unlikely to see the simpler solution first, because they're tempted to use JS for everything. An excellent example of the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" principle.
Explains node.js to some degree too. Very glad I didn't enter the scene now with what I see in JS development.