Lets be honest, 99% of people who disable javascript are programmers who take great honor in complaining about every website that is more than 200k in size. This is a non-issue for most companies.
You're getting the wrong impression of those who disable javascript. Yes, they tend to be programmers, or otherwise tech-minded, because they have to know what javascript is, know how to disable it, and (most limitingly) understand the reasons for doing so. And naturally, if you disable javascript, you're going to be annoyed when sites don't work, going to consider the trend of requiring javascript regressive, and going to publically complain in the interest of promoting the health of your own profession. Notice that "taking great honor in complaining" is not the underlying cause of disabling javascript but rather an effect. The actual motivations vary.
I started disabling javascript since every site these days includes a gazillion badly crafted scripts that take up too much cpu. It actually brings my laptop to a grind
Anecdotal evidence: I have no problems having more than 200 tabs open on a Thinkpad T60 – as long as any JavaScript is disabled. Enabling JavaScript makes such a thing hard; there exist web pages that raise CPU temperature by more than 10°C.
