> I've met several JS developers who don't know that JSX gets transformed to JavaScript function calls after a build step -- they just assume it's part of how b

> I've met several JS developers who don't know that JSX gets transformed to JavaScript function calls after a build step -- they just assume it's part of how browsers work at this point. And that is mindblowing to me. I believe you, and I've also met some like you described who came to our interviews indeed, but it's more like the failure of their mentors. I've also met back-end engineers, with a lot of experience, who couldn't write a simple HTTP service with C#, without using ASP.NET, nor open a simple DB connection without using EntityFramework APIs. Understanding what's going on will be even harder if it's not your main field (back-end developer just trying to get front-end out of the way) and some magic there won't cause a lot of problems IMHO.