I don't know a big react project that doesn't bring in a massive ecosystem with it. Standard is at least a complex webpack setup with a store and a routing lib.

I don't know a big react project that doesn't bring in a massive ecosystem with it. Standard is at least a complex webpack setup with a store and a routing lib. But more than that, react based code has a lot of indirections, requires a lot of pieces of the puzzle to figure out what's going on, and projects have so many different styles and layout you never feel at home when you switch. The best exemple is jsx. Not only you need a transpiler, not only do you mix in the same place representation and behavior, but the code looks like either spagetthi inlines, or, if you are lucky, a list of many references you suddenly gotta check up somewhere else. The thing is, with classes, you have a little guidance on where goes what, and people still manage to screw that up. With hooks it's free for all, with caveats, so reading somebody else's code is going to get extra fun.