There are a number of tools which require javascript such as google analytics, visual editor, code editor, charinsert extension, some parts of the skin, perhaps notification also uses this. These things slow down the page load time. It would be nice if users had a special page which lists what javascript tools are loaded in a user-friendly way including their purpose and license terms of each javascript tool, and allowed to disable them for this particular user.
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These things slow down the page load time.
That's generally true for anything you load and is not a JavaScript specific argument. :)
For example, pages likely also load faster if you disable displaying images in your browser.
and allowed to disable them for this particular user
Though neither https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Compatibility nor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/No-JavaScript_notes make clear statements about our support for browsers that have JavaScript disabled, I do not expect anybody to ever work on this.
I understand the argument that users should be able to configure which functionality to use, but I don't see why all users should be bothered with technical implementation details like "this functionality is implemented via JavaScript".