I get that. It's why I mentioned "next tick" to indicate the changes are minimized to the diff'd elements and batched. As you say, one can rig up DOM updates

I get that. It's why I mentioned "next tick" to indicate the changes are minimized to the diff'd elements and batched. As you say, one can rig up DOM updates through VanillaJS calls that are more efficient than React if you're a clever masochist. If sub-optimal accesses to the DOM is where most of the time is spent in an application, then using an abstraction like React to manage the DOM really can make the system faster AND more manageable, as you say.