I just created a new tool for my company, and I opted to leave out jQuery as I wanted to see how it would be without it.
After going through the process I don’t think I’ll use jQuery again unless it is already a dependancy. Vanilla pretty much has everything covered that jQuery made easier, just need to be a bit more verbose in some cases, but I’ve found that typically makes the code easier to read and modify.
No hate if jQuery is your thing though, just if you’re on the fence I’d give vanilla a go and see if it fits your needs!
Most bots out there aren’t backed by chat gpt. We had a flood of Russian boys using a sign up for on a site to send spam emails by putting the spam in the names and address fields. Slapping the most basic of captchas on the page solved it.