I happened to be sitting in front of a JavaScript book as you wrote that.
I finally opened it. I was always curious if I should learn js/node to replace PHP and maybe even get away from server side rendering in php. Right or wrong, from what I've read I think I can put that to rest for now. I see just as many issues with doing things in JS as PHP. Just spending a few hours of reading let my brain move on from that curiosity for now.
Good tip you gave. Thanks