Users overwhelmingly prefer some amount of client-side interaction, so how do you do that without JavaScript?

css :hover with hrefs to fast-loading pages can give the illusion of interactivity without any javascript (or even server processing, if the whole site is statically-generated).

Most people don´t know how to build this because their X MB JS framework just slows everything down.

HTML

Links, text boxes, selects, radios, checkboxes, buttons, forms, and content.

Depends what you are building. I have certainly had more frustration using single page or collections of single page apps. It is very rare that they get the back/forward button handling and refresh handling exactly right.

Are you sure about that, I don't think many of the users I know could tell the difference.

I'd agree, but I really can't say I enjoy making websites without at least a templating engine. I use Twig (80% with silex micro framework.. ).

If I'm creating a static page I would just create a html page (no php required)