I have a rather unpopular opinion that JS libraries get popular for reasons unrelated to merit, such as corporate backing (React), appeal to beginners (jQuery),

I have a rather unpopular opinion that JS libraries get popular for reasons unrelated to merit, such as corporate backing (React), appeal to beginners (jQuery), and adding syntax sugar that has no value to end-users (Underscore/Lodash, Babel). They are symptomatic of organizational problems related to herding programmers at scale. To beat the average, by definition you can't just do what everyone else is doing and expect outstanding results. If your problem is unique there won't be a library for it. If you find or create a hidden gem, it's your secret weapon, you are its user and responsible for it.