The pressure isn't really coming from clients anyway. It's coming from the web itself, from a decade of bloated pages, dark patterns, and feature arms races that quietly redefined what a "real" website looks like. Clients are just reading the room. The room is wrong, but they're not imagining it.

The shift might come from users, not decision-makers. It might come when enough people notice that the fast, calm site was easier to use. That they actually found what they came for. That they didn't have to close three things before reading a single line.

Everyone is to blame here:

clients want flashy websites, not considering user experience

managers don't translate wants to real needs and pass the problem to devs

devs like to have less work, so they will gladly insert random external dependency to fulfill the growing number of wants

users just accept shitty websites without complaining, even letting themselves take the blame - if X is slow, then it is time to buy a new PC