content: The barrier to entry for scripting languages is a lot lower, and there are admittedly far more bad scripting language "programmers" than bare metal coders.  In their defense however, I wouldn't dismiss somebody's ability just because they went where the work is in today's world. Being a true frontend expert is one of the hardest things in software development today. Besides being an expert programmer in multiple complex dynamic languages, you have to have both a broad and deep knowledge of how databases work, how APIs work, graphic design, usability, all of the browser APIs, loads of libraries that are continuously changing, servers, build systems, version control, have a great handle on best practices in all of these fields, tons of new requirements like Accessibility that are super complex and nightmarish, think through all kinds of complex security issues, manage client expectations when they want X and you know it's a bad idea, and have good judgement and problem solving skills because there are 10,000 ways to solve any given problem. Oh, and you do all of this in environments that have tons of browser quirks.  Being an expert frontend guy who actually knows their shit is one of the hardest and most valuable jobs in tech IMO.