Javascript in my opinion is still very young. You can't compile it to web assembly (yet) and the fact that there are different browsers that interpret it in so many different ways make for libraries to exist to mitigate this. Also none of these tools are 100% necessary, they just make your life easier and tools always have room for improvement. I'm sure others can add to this. I don't think any of this is a bad thing, it's just overwhelming for newcomers that haven't been following this whole thing.