I have used many frontend frameworks (Backbone, Knockout, Angular, CanJS, React, Polymer). I find React to be overly complex/bloated. It sucks you into a whole

I have used many frontend frameworks (Backbone, Knockout, Angular, CanJS, React, Polymer). I find React to be overly complex/bloated. It sucks you into a whole new universe which probably shouldn't exist in the first place. At first, you think that React will take the complexity out of building apps. Soon enough you realize that React on its own isn't enough; you have to follow particular programming patterns like Flux or Redux (which adds more constraints/complexity). Then, with all the complex data rendering happening behind the scenes (diffing), you start to realize that REST is no longer a suitable medium for transferring data over the wire so now you have to use GraphQL/Relay. Personally, I much prefer the approach which Google has taken with the Polymer 'framework' - You can setup models (WebComponents) to hold simple, atomic values and you can wire them all up on the frontend (no diffing necessary) - You get all the live binding awesomeness without the insane complexity. For example, with Polymer, you can setup a dynamic collection of item IDs and then use those IDs to load the individual properties of each item - You can hook everything up to update in realtime (both the collection and the bound properties for each item). The Polymer approach is simple and efficient - Also, once the WebComponents standard has been implemented in all major browsers, you will be able to run that code without any special libraries or frameworks.