the grand unifying architecture of the fronted is either wrapping a 40x inside a 200; or for everything.
^/s^
Edit: But on a serious note, yes that's how I have always simplified webdev for myself. I have been reluctant to enter the js ecosystem only dipping my toes into react frontend as recently as two months ago.
My goto backend is python + flask. Naturally I started with jinja templates for the frontend. I have now gravitated away from fully relying on templates into having a partially REST API with JSON payloads and asynchronous requests. This is nicely fits with the three layering transformation that this blog endorses and is optimal from a manageability perspective.