This isn't a one-or-the-other situation. A web developer should and would choose the right path depending on the scope of the website. Mainly, is it a web pag

This isn't a one-or-the-other situation. A web developer should and would choose the right path depending on the scope of the website. Mainly, is it a web page or a web app? If it's a landing page or even a blog, i'd say vanilla HTML/CSS/JS is just fine. It's when you get to data manipulation, state manipulation, and user interaction that React is very helpful... Same with BackboneJS and Angulars of the past, and if society has taught us anything, it's that there always be a NEW and IMPROVED one-framework-to-rule-all the other frameworks. Also, the state of JS in browsers are way more "consistent" than the IE wild west of the 90's and 00's, which was why jQuery was so popular. And that began our dependency on plugins to provide consistent dev codebase in between browsers. So if you REALLY think about it, it's the browser vendors' fault for why "vanilla" HTML/CSS/JS seems to have so much tooling. In the end...figure out what you're trying to build, and know that if it gets too complicated in straight up HTML/CSS/JS, there's plenty of frameworks to help you organized.