This is a real problem, but I'm not sure the root cause is that senior developer.
We've been building software far more complex than any web front-end for many, many years. Much of it was built without the help of all-encompassing frameworks. Much of it has stood the test of time longer than any web app, too.
Doing this requires a basic understanding of general programming principles from all developers. It requires a solid understanding of software design and architectural concepts from at least the more senior developers.
These things aren't rocket science. Millions of developers around the world have these skills. Many books and conference talks and training courses have been created to pass on the knowledge and the important ideas behind it.
Unfortunately, lots of people get into web development without ever learning even the basic skills of their trade. They learn by copying and pasting snippets from Stack Overflow or some YouTube video they found, jumping from one trendy framework or tool stack to the next every five minutes, with no awareness that those snippets were often also written by people who never learned the basics. Rookie mistakes are everywhere, and the culture often favours shiny new things over solid, well built solutions to real problems.
You can't really fix this just by getting developers to use a well-documented framework. For one thing, a lot of those frameworks aren't great themselves, either in their design or (not coincidentally) in their longevity, because they too were written by people with limited experience and understanding. But even if you do find a good framework, if your developers don't understand how to use it and the trade-offs it makes, they will still make dumb mistakes. When you have requirements that can't be implemented by just joining one framework dot to another until you're done, you definitely want someone who knows what they're doing writing that code.
As is often the case, the key to improving this is probably better training, particularly in the early stages of a career. But that doesn't always work in business, where resume driven development means developers will stick around long enough to add a few buzzwords and then jump ship to a better paid job somewhere else, taking the value of any accumulated experience with them. Until businesses start looking for real skill instead of buzzwords when they're hiring and start rewarding real and growing skill with their compensation packages, unfortunately the cycle will continue.
We've been building software far more complex than any web front-end for many, many years. Much of it was built without the help of all-encompassing frameworks. Much of it has stood the test of time longer than any web app, too.
Doing this requires a basic understanding of general programming principles from all developers. It requires a solid understanding of software design and architectural concepts from at least the more senior developers.
These things aren't rocket science. Millions of developers around the world have these skills. Many books and conference talks and training courses have been created to pass on the knowledge and the important ideas behind it.
Unfortunately, lots of people get into web development without ever learning even the basic skills of their trade. They learn by copying and pasting snippets from Stack Overflow or some YouTube video they found, jumping from one trendy framework or tool stack to the next every five minutes, with no awareness that those snippets were often also written by people who never learned the basics. Rookie mistakes are everywhere, and the culture often favours shiny new things over solid, well built solutions to real problems.
You can't really fix this just by getting developers to use a well-documented framework. For one thing, a lot of those frameworks aren't great themselves, either in their design or (not coincidentally) in their longevity, because they too were written by people with limited experience and understanding. But even if you do find a good framework, if your developers don't understand how to use it and the trade-offs it makes, they will still make dumb mistakes. When you have requirements that can't be implemented by just joining one framework dot to another until you're done, you definitely want someone who knows what they're doing writing that code.
As is often the case, the key to improving this is probably better training, particularly in the early stages of a career. But that doesn't always work in business, where resume driven development means developers will stick around long enough to add a few buzzwords and then jump ship to a better paid job somewhere else, taking the value of any accumulated experience with them. Until businesses start looking for real skill instead of buzzwords when they're hiring and start rewarding real and growing skill with their compensation packages, unfortunately the cycle will continue.