It blows my mind sometimes, looking at a web page made of mostly simple text and a few images, to view the source and see page after page after page of CSS and javascript just to make something that looks only slightly better than
"Slightly better" is a subjective assertion. Especially in the webdev world where the pace of design and functionality improvements tend to move so fast. Granted, you may display the same/similar information in a text-only page, such as your example. But you won't be engaging users much or creating a site that people will want to see & return to, which is where the money that is spent on webdev work generally comes from.
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/T...