Just that React, Webpack, graphql backends and millions of other packages and pipeline tools are on npmjs.com does not mean you have to use them. You can still create super-slim, to the point, and timeless backends using express.js (which was inspired by Ruby's Sinatra after all) and vanilla frontends. Doesn't get you brownie points on your CV though, which I think is the actual problem.
That, and the OP mentions they have a business background. If you don't come from a "how to write code starting with no batteries, forming your own opinions, etc", and all the tutorials are "you need to put some spaces before a string? We'll include leftpad!" style dependency hells, I can see Rails feeling like a breath of fresh air since it's batteries included, and heavily opinionated.
True, as long as people mindfully not using them drive the team. But the fact that "they are there" - and the fact that visible folks in the community usually either make the tools or endorse them (no wonder because they have to do personal marketing) means that it only takes that many new team members until every one of them regrets "not having" their favourite mini-tool used on that particular team, on this particular project. It takes extreme will (and some unpleasant conversations) to drive against that trend, and in the end folks might leave because of being denied using what they would like to try. So while you can "not use" all the new fancy tooling you will have the weight of convincing your peers that they do not need them either.
