webdev requires deep knowledge, it just may be a kind of knowledge you aren't interested in. Placing more value in your own pet interests is more than a little condescending.
Deep knowledge of what? The way different browsers render things?
All of the Web dev I've been involved in is pretty straight forward stuff to manage records in a database or make it easier to interact with the records on a browser.
The only thing remotely complex was 3d rendering. Perhaps I have a narrow view of what is considered web dev now.
"Webdev" is not fundamentally any different from any other kind of development that involves a client and server component. It just happens to be served in a web browser. You need the same underlying knowledge as for other (common) types of software development.
It certainly can. But it feels like a lot of the Web dev scene is people chasing their tails around writing yet another JavaScript library that does the same thing as one they're replacing but with slightly different syntax.
