Alternatively, why should I not be considering React? Is everybody using something else these days? Looking to build a front-end to interact with some REST APIs

Alternatively, why should I not be considering React? Is everybody using something else these days? Looking to build a front-end to interact with some REST APIs. React is a decent choice for that. Go ahead and learn it. If you want to do frontend in 99% of shops - React by itself is not enough. People will tell you it's "just a library" - and that's technically true. But in the wild you'll be dealing with something I call "Enterprise React". A bloated monstrosity of a web project created with create-react-app (Which is a nightmare of needless complexity under a thin and very slow veneer of convenience). Your react and general coding skills will be secondary to your skills as a sort of npm sysadmin, because best practices are to download a library for every whim anyone ever has. That is unless you never update it your packages while you are there. Which honestly - I've recently learned - is the smarter career play. So sure, learn react, make your SPA. But be careful of getting too deep into it, because that way lies madness.