Knockout was an abject disaster. We almost immediately ran into performance problems. Coupled with its own limited ecosystem we had the same problems as you exp

Knockout was an abject disaster. We almost immediately ran into performance problems. Coupled with its own limited ecosystem we had the same problems as you experienced with React, but ended up in a far worse place. I have reflected on what happened quite a bit and I can't think of any redeeming aspect of that technology choice. It really was the worst possible move and it was entirely motivated by the "boring is better" argument.