You linked to the issue which appears to list the benefits of this. This is a stepping-stone change to: (from [0]) - Deprecate "module pattern" components. (ed

You linked to the issue which appears to list the benefits of this. This is a stepping-stone change to: (from [0]) - Deprecate "module pattern" components. (ed: I don't know what this is) - Deprecate defaultProps on function components. (ed: Presumably, allowing normal param default values instead) - Deprecate spreading key from objects. (ed: Presumably, performance) - Deprecate string refs (and remove production mode _owner field). (ed: unclear how this is related) - Move ref extraction to class render time and forwardRef render time. (ed: presumably to make refs "just work" and not require the forwardRef rigamarole) - Move defaultProps resolution to class render time. (ed: performance? not sure) https://github.com/reactjs/rfcs/pull/107 https://github.com/reactjs/rfcs/pull/107 [append] Much better link: https://github.com/reactjs/rfcs/blob/createlement-rfc/text/0000-create-element-changes.md https://github.com/reactjs/rfcs/blob/createlement-rfc/text/0...