I should say outright I have been learning front-end development early in my computer days and that was when jQuery was new and very much useful to bridge gaps between IE and other browsers in use around the Web.
I have since learned a lot of other technologies from other branches of IT and I wanted to get back into coding web-based front ends to a project I am working on, but I don't want it to be outdated to the point of needing a rewrite immediately once it's completed.
So I guess the core question of mine is: what is the minimal viable stack for front-end development, and am I fooling myself if I think to avoid Angular, etc.?
The whole purpose of jQuery is pretty much gone. Huge browser inconsistencies is a thing of the past.