jQuery really pushed forward the base plane for standards in the browser. It was a common well tested library that allowed developers more time in developing their app/game/etc rather than testing in browsers fixing standards holes.

Browsers are more standardized today because of it, but what will come in the future when there isn't a library as widespread to help that effort, probably more fragmentation and eventually more jQuery like libraries whether that is polyfills, vdom kits, wasm, based and more.

jQuery also created a rare simplification in the front end fast moving javascript eco-system that standardized a well tested across all browsers library that made front end development easier rather than more complex. There aren't lots of libraries like it today that look to make things more standard and simple rather than adding monstrous monolithic abstractions that are brittle to change, yet change every few months causing brittle/flaky development.

As a webdev that developed javascript before jQuery and all the others (mootools, prototype, scriptalicious even dhtml etc) it was a very welcome library and may not be understood how impactful it was to development speeds and a market standard that really helped ship products.

I feel like jQuery gets lots of underserved hate just like javascript itself does, meanwhile they are very useful, helpful and needed tools. Tools that simplify over adding more complexity are needed, some engineers just like to add complexity which makes them seem smarter, when the job of an engineer is taking complexity and simplifying it. jQuery simplified over adding complexity. jQuery always made team developments more robust especially with juniors on the squad, you could at least know jQuery was tested and focus on the implementation and app over internals/support/browsers. jQuery is a perfect simplified abstraction of common javascript needs that standardized development from signatures to usage and eventually browsers. Just like javascript itself which has simplified web apps and development, jQuery's simplicity and usefulness went well beyond the call of duty. Believe it or not, jQuery is still a good library and that is mainly because its mission is to simplify complexity. I feel like some of the hate against jQuery is because it simplified too much and people that like to add complexity felt it made them seem less than, comments like "it didn't even need jQuery but the samples were in that anyways" were because jQuery was a simplification and market standard most of the time, and that is ok, platforms are built from good cornerstones and libs you can trust just like native/browser standards themselves.

I do lots of projects, some with jQuery and some without, the ones with jQuery still seem to get less in the weeds of browser standards/capabilities than the ones without. Native js is much better by far but even jQuery uses most of that now. The other areas of jQuery like animation are not as useful anymore (CSS animations). However it is still nice to have jQuery at times because without jQuery, even with most of the useful tools available natively in javascript, it is a common signature/library that when not present still leads to other people making their own helpers and re-creating jQuery at least the useful parts i.e. selectors, event handling, ajax, dom etc.

Thanks jQuery and John Resig, we'll need more libraries like you in the future to bring front end dev back to sanity and see though standards fragmentation again one day, for now that is numerous polyfills and vdom kits. Let the best of the warring new jQuery's win. "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" - jQuery