Is it a library or a framework?!
Do not know, but everyone is using it.
Must be good.
Hype Driven Development.
It should be a known story for experienced developers. For new developers it is alright to start here.
The problem is never the tool itself. How it is been used, the implementation details. That is the place, where it matters.
During the last days of FlashPlayer, the company and the community both jumped into Flex, the framework and the tool-chain to say, everything can be fixed with it! Any and all problems seemed just not enough for Flex. It can do this, it can do that and the story went on. This is what happens when you try to please the corporates. FlashPlayer and Flash IDE are still the best ones out there for a creative and interactive experience. This can not be said for Flex, which is a corporate pleasing Framework / tool chain on top of FlashPlayer. Un/Fortunately the whole Flex thing went down and took Flash with it.
History is repeating itself here with ReactJS.
Web was dominated by JQuery and it’s supporting technologies. No one ever thought anything else could come in the way. Many have tried to fill the gap, they came and gone. Finally ReactJS came in and dominated.
This is because of the same reason, why Flash was popular.
The simplicity of the technology and the output it delivers in time. In the beginning there were huge push-backs from the corporates and the so-called experienced developers. But in the end everyone gave up and ReactJS rules now.
The time has come now for the corporates and the so-called experienced developers to bend ReactJS as per their knowing (not their need). The corporate pleasing has started and the tool chain is simply going the FlexFramework way(during the Flash days). It is getting more and more complex day by day in the name of solving the problem. Actually it is creating a problem, which is good in my view. Because it now paves way for new things to come in.
Simpler, Better, Newer ways of doing things.
In case of ReactJS, Facebook(Meta) is kind of doing it right. It has still not given up on ReactJS on FrontEnd. There are other companies which are making ReactJS behave like any other tool out there! If that is the case, why use ReactJS?! Why not use the other tools?! For the HYPE and HYPE only.
There are mature frameworks available, which have passed the test of time.
If at all you can not change your thinking, better use one of these. These bring in, the complexity you wanted as an experienced developer and structure to your code base.
Every tool is made with a specific need and focus. Play to its full strength.
Instead of making each tool behave, as you think it should behave. Use it, as it is intended to be used. It is like using all the tools as if they all are hammers. This is creating a problem with a given solution. When you play to the strength of a tool it gives the best it could give. When you play to the weakness of a tool, everything seems a problem. There is no golden rule as to what works and what not. It may be working in a + b + c scenario, but it might not work with a x b + c. It is very well possible. In that case, instead of bending the tool, it is better to see what other tool does it best and use that. That way you will be taking the best of everything.