I've seen a few apps that began as vanilla JS or jQuery updated to use react as the requirements grew and the "simple" JS started crumbling under its own weight

I've seen a few apps that began as vanilla JS or jQuery updated to use react as the requirements grew and the "simple" JS started crumbling under its own weight. So I'm sympathetic to the idea of just starting with a framework from the get-go. That's why I'm excited to see how Phoenix's LiveView turns out. It gives the "server side rendered, sprinkling of JS" approach more room to go in. It won't replace something like Google Maps, but there's a whole class of applications that would previously be on the border of the decision between react and server side that can be pushed into server side.