Should I choose PWA / CSR?

As always: it depends. Yes, Google engineers did come up with service workers, also part of PWA. At the same time, they always vouched for using only necessery JavaScript. Even Alex Russell, one of the founding fathers of PWA.

In the Technical section, I re-used Google's description of factors that could impact the three Core Web Vitals metrics. In each metric, JavaScript will often play a role as well. Rendering and layout work as done by the browser can only be done after JavaScript has been downloaded, compiled, parsed and executed. Keep a close eye on the impact on real user experience and metrics when moving to Client Side Rendering (CSR) such as the average PWA.

Rather have the full insights? Read about PWA and its technical implications.