It depends on the architecture of your app. If you're using React to return HTML from the server, then indeed wrapping an <img /> in a React component means you

It depends on the architecture of your app. If you're using React to return HTML from the server, then indeed wrapping an <img /> in a React component means you're augmenting an existing element. But if you're rendering the entire thing on the client side, then the <img /> is ultimately inseparable from the React component.