htmx is very, very close conceptually to a standard HTML <form> tag. (By the way, the fact that there is a <form> tag immediately tells us that HTML is not just 'the damn view layer'.). htmx just goes slightly beyond it to give <form>-like capabilities to every element, and doesn't need a full page reload. It doesn't even necessarily change or extend HTML–you can just use a `data-` prefix on the attributes that it adds–which makes it completely standards-compliant HTML. It's a very natural fit.