I took a look at Datastar, and pretty quickly realized I really don't like libraries which try to do so many different things. The surface area of the API is way too big. htmx is already too big for me, I tend to reach for mostly vanilla-only or small vanilla-adjacent solutions I can either write by hand or import. But as I've been experimenting with htmx (including its very good extensions API), I'm realizing it's in a pretty good sweet spot overall.

I'm very excited about htmx 4.0 and sounds like things are headed in a promising direction.

I hope you realize literally everything is a plug-in. The core is < 4kb. Also Datastar is literally smaller than HTMX so this is already kinda funny

If you are looking for a very tiny foot print, you might like htmz-be.