Which is exactly the point I just made :) You don't _need_ those to learn React. Yes, you probably should use them for a production app, but you don't need th

Which is exactly the point I just made :) You don't _need_ those to learn React. Yes, you probably should use them for a production app, but you don't need them _just_ to learn React. (And it's still possible to use React in prod without Webpack and Babel. We're adding a couple new features to an existing ES5/Backbone app which still uses Require.js, so no Webpack or Babel there. We don't get to use JSX syntax, but the react-hyperscript-helpers lib keeps things reasonably readable.) CRA serves three primary purposes: it allows React learners to set up an environment without having to learn Webpack and Babel first; it allows experienced React devs to spin up a project without having to do all the configuration work (or copy and paste it from somewhere); and it also provides a common starting point for instructions and tutorials. For example, my recent blog post on using the Cesium.js 3D globe library with Webpack and React ( http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-part-1-cesium-webpack/ http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-p...) was able to start by just saying "Create a CRA project, eject, and modify these two config values". So yes, knowing what all the tools are used for and how to configure them is a good thing. But that should NOT be a barrier or prerequisite for someone who just wants to learn how to use React.