Perhaps two starters, not everyone uses node on the backend

[niemyjski]

This sample assumes I'll have a client and server written both in js. For a large number of users this is not the case.

[sonicoder86]

The minimal backend is needed to validate the JWT token and store plus modify the list of posts. It cant be done on the client.
It is so minimal i think you can easily ditch it to something else. With a backend in another language would make this example app more complicated.

And yes for a frontend only i would make a different repository, but in that case authentication should be solved with a provider like Auth0 and the storage of posts with Firebase.

[niemyjski]

I'm saying make a sample that doesn't have the jwt stuff at all and maybe only a src folder (no client and server folder) thus removing code and making the sample more like real world spa apps that don't use node.

[sonicoder86]

My TodoMVC repository now shows a minimal setup without server side and gulp tasks.