I use Docker a lot myself... even outside Kubernetes, I just find it easier to work with Compose for semi-complex apps, dev environment or production.

I think VS Code is probably more responsible for TypeScript acceptance than any other project. Just having good interactions with the editor I think brought a lot of the requests to add type definitions to projects.

I'm with you on Next/Mongo... while as a Dev I liked a lot about Mongo, I'd never want to admin it again, I'm fine with PostgreSQL's JSONB for when I need similar features. On Next specifically, usually avoid it... fatter clients aren't so bad IMO.

Edit: +1 for Hono too... Beyond that, Deno has become my main scripting environment for all my scripting needs.