Hook-using functions basically are classes, just with utterly bizarre method and property declaration syntax and some strange and unhelpful behaviors. I mean,

Hook-using functions basically are classes, just with utterly bizarre method and property declaration syntax and some strange and unhelpful behaviors. I mean, they ultimately associate lists of properties and functions (methods, if you like) with a component object instance (yes, object) down in the React internals. Sure, access to them is FIFO rather than a lookup table, but that still looks a whole lot like very-weird classes/objects being reimplemented in a language that already has decent-enough ones. Now, the trouble was certain optimizations and features were probably going to be hard to impossible to achieve while supporting both functional- and class-based components more-or-less equally, and the easy path forward was to let class components become more powerful and functional components slip to second-class (haha), but instead they put object/class-like features in their functions so they could have functions (but very much stateful/side-effecty, so WTF is the point?) lead the way, for whatever reason.