For a long time I would test contracts on testnets versus using any local environments. I would see scripts and code for contracts that I knew worked, starting out with simple tokens, and just push out .sol files through Remix (where you can do unit testing), compiling and interacting with the contract and testing functionality.
It was, and is, easy for simple tokens and contracts, and even to a certain extent, large and more involved contracts if you know the code and what you want to do.
And there's only so much you can do as Solidity isn't an all encompassing program language.
I'm not saying it's for every project or group, or that you shouldn't have a local environment like you do with so many other frameworks/languages/systems--but it fits within that ecosystem and you can cleanup code/waste.
But then I found Ganache and I'm still using it, eschewing other tools.
Because I honestly just need that for the type of projects I'm doing.
While I have to sometimes implement the very latest for different domains, for others, I can peripherally know what's new, but not necessarily implement it and use something "less new" regardless of support and other updates.
Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't be using something like Hardhat, I'm just saying I understand you if you are not.
It's a balance.
