I got a good chuckle when my brain finished this sentence with "and promptly forget so that you can learn it all over again years later the next time you need to touch that topic".

You could maybe find a component that all it does is apply position:sticky though?

Its like when rounded borders were hard to do without using clever tricks, people would try and add them to their website so that they looked different to everyone else. Once they became easy to do they weren't so desirable.

The equivalent today is wacky scrolling schemes where unusual things happen as you scroll down. Whatever is difficult can be used to distinguish your site.

The former being dominated by bespoke things that worked better than anything available at that time, but filled a tiny niche: “not using the platform”.

While the latter are the boring things that were built with unexciting bulletproof tools that keep churning and adding business value day after day, year after year: “using the platform”.

And when it becomes real, you've got yourself an argument

I agree with his point that learning to do it yourself can be fun and lead to a flywheel of improvement where the next time you’re faster and the next time faster still.

In the past that was the recipe for success as a developer, nowadays with AI many feel that’s no longer the case.

Native date pickers suck, are ugly, and have no customizability, and look inconsistent between user agents. They don’t even really conform to the OS either (other than iOS). Everyone uses JS. Chrome’s native date picker shipped with a monospaced input font, for crying out loud.

Position sticky is amazing and the behavior is better than what JS can give you. A lot of people use it. Not much UI to make consistent between user agents.

Make the platform actually good and consistent and people will use it. Native APIs are always the better choice if they accomplish your need.