I'm a bit ashamed to admit that you just taught me that anchor links work with id attributes. I just always used <a name> tags... which I rarely used, but still. I guess my excuse is that I started with HTML around 1996 :)
I guess it's a good thing that I don't do much frontend coding anymore!
Important clarification: it was JdeBP's comment that taught _me_ that one uses id attrs for anchors! That was the point I was making in my previous comment.
I think I followed a similar path to what you did, albeit 7 years later. IMO frontend dev is fine, given the time that seems to be required in order to stumble on these "things we didn't know we needed to know", whether by concerted tuition/learning or simple wandering.
I guess it's a good thing that I don't do much frontend coding anymore!