The features which are being exploited to implement this are indeed advances.
> If I didn't like a language and people offered an even worse to use replacement I'd be justified in having distaste for it!
You’re missing my point. Nobody is actually suggesting replacing JS with CSS, but many new CSS features eliminate the need to use JS to accomplish what you need in terms of behavior or style. Nobody is seriously suggesting CSS is a _replacement_ for JS, it’s just a better solution for certain common things on the web.