Yes, it _was_ that bad. I worked on a Backbone app for multiple years. Integrated numerous plugins to try to fill various use cases (view lifecycles, event pro

Yes, it _was_ that bad. I worked on a Backbone app for multiple years. Integrated numerous plugins to try to fill various use cases (view lifecycles, event processing, computed data, UI composition). It was a _royal_ pain. React solved _all_ those pain points. React has its own tradeoffs, but I get to focus on much more meaningful decisions in the app, and have _vastly_ more flexibility in how I build it.