As somebody who has done some very gross things with jQuery/vanilla JS when I should've really been using the pattern of "components just redraw themselves base

As somebody who has done some very gross things with jQuery/vanilla JS when I should've really been using the pattern of "components just redraw themselves based on props/state" (or whatever it is that Reacts boils down to), I'm not so sure this is the right answer. Vanilla JavaScript/jQuery projects probably start off small/without bad intentions. It's what happens to them overtime as they grow (fall apart) in my opinion.