Actions are somewhat similar, yeah, even if much more limited.
Svelte was too js-heavy, and it requires js backend to be rendered on the server - while we had no js engineers. Plus markup was already done, as we rendered it server-side when using React.
Nit: SvelteKit requires a backend on the server (actually it does not you can use it only for the client side rourting and have no SvelteKit backend and talk directly to your own backend) but Svelte does not as it is just a superset of html.
Even when using the SvelteKit backend you can disable server side rendering.
But sure I trust you that the htmx way was the way to go for your use case/situation
Svelte was too js-heavy, and it requires js backend to be rendered on the server - while we had no js engineers. Plus markup was already done, as we rendered it server-side when using React.