What is the role of the Document Object Model (DOM) in web development?

The Document Object Model (DOM) plays a crucial role in web development as it provides a structured representation of the web page. It allows developers to programmatically manipulate HTML and XML documents. Option B highlights this dynamic capability, which involves adding, deleting, or modifying elements and attributes on a web page in real-time. This manipulation is essential for creating interactive web applications, as developers can update the content displayed to users without requiring a full page reload, enhancing the overall user experience.

For instance, utilizing JavaScript in conjunction with the DOM, developers can respond to user actions such as clicks, form submissions, or keyboard inputs to update the content dynamically. This capability is fundamental for modern web applications that rely heavily on user interaction.

In contrast, the other options focus on aspects that are not directly related to the DOM's functionality. Controlling server-side scripting concerns how server-side languages operate, optimizing loading times is related to performance and resource management, and managing database connections pertains to backend data handling—all of which do not involve the direct manipulation of the document structure that the DOM facilitates.