The criticism feels weak. 1. Javascript doesn't have the same semantics as dart and swift. Both of those languages provide features like named parameters which

The criticism feels weak. 1. Javascript doesn't have the same semantics as dart and swift. Both of those languages provide features like named parameters which makes it much nicer to write composeable functional UI. The ecosystem is different. React chose to mimic html-like extension to hide their API because they were targeting web developers. Swift and flutter had to target mobile developers. 2. There are other options than create-react-app that you can use which aren't as bloated. You don't need create-react-app to write a react application. It's a combination of sensible defaults, support for older browsers, polyfills and much more. You can use react as a library by installing it through npm without other packages. 3. Any library will have an ecosystem around it eventually if it gets popular. You can't stop defaults, conventions and patterns from emerging as a result of learning and figuring out the pain points. The rest is author describing his project.