Real-world data from multiple sources reveals that Single-Page Applications (SPAs) average only one soft navigation per hard page load, suggesting users don't generate long sessions. This challenges the fundamental trade-off SPAs offer: accepting higher upfront JavaScript costs for faster subsequent interactions. If sessions are truly this shallow, SPA architectures may represent an industry-wide mistake outside specific use cases like document editing or chat. The web performance community needs to investigate whether this data accurately reflects reality, understand what interactions are being measured, and use these insights to steer teams toward more appropriate architectures based on actual session depth rather than FOMO-driven technology choices.
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