Myth: "Divi is bloated legacy, never start a new site on it"

Myth: "Divi is bloated legacy, never start a new site on it"

The cool-kid take is Divi = shortcode dinosaur. That was fair pre-2023. Divi 5's rewrite drops the shortcode storage and moves to a real React/JSON engine, so the blanket dismissal is now lazy.

Pros of current Divi:
— Divi 5 stores layouts as structured data, not shortcode soup
— Lighter output and proper dynamic CSS vs the old monolith

Cons / fair criticism that remains:
— Years of legacy sites still carry the shortcode baggage
— Default global assets are heavier than Bricks out of the box
— Lock-in is still real once you commit

Verdict: judge Divi 5, not the 2019 reputation. Still not the leanest, no longer the punchline.

Best for: design-heavy client sites where the visual library earns its weight.