In reply to Ryan McCue.

But "we" aren't "reinvent[ing] ourselves." In fact, WordPress has, over the last couple of years, been stuffed with unnecessary cruft, and that will remain whatever is being used on the front-end.

So then the question will inevitably become, if the new javascript-based front-end(s) are the way to go, is it really optimal to continue to try to connect them to a WordPress-based backend. I think the answer to that, at least for self-hosted WordPress sites, will increasingly be no.

"Learn javascript deeply" is an injunction that makes sense for the reinvention (and thus preservation) of wordpress.com. It's probably good advice more generally too. But, if heeded, I think it could well signal the long-term demise of self-hosted WordPress.

Ironically, it's the (in my view, rather strong) possibility that the message won't be heeded much that will help self-hosted WP continue.