> I never took Node seriously for backend work—it was always something I reluctantly touched for client-side stuff

That was my initial assessment as well. Anything JavaScript related I stood clear and far away from using it anywhere near backend systems and relegated it into the list of non-serious technologies to stay away from.

> Over time, though, it’s added so many crufts and features that these days, I shudder at the thought of reading a TS expert’s type sludge.

TypeScript just repeated the same issues as CoffeeScript and both JS and TS are just as bad for software anyways.

Go and Kotlin have much better type systems, but the rest of the JS ecosystem just reeks with immaturity.