[_Marak_]

I've found using Babel / React / transpile tool-chain is actually fairly impossible to use for the majority of developers. I've given up on it several times in favor of plain-ole-javascript and jQuery.

The amount of time it takes to ramp-up on the technical knowledge isn't insurmountable. The main issue is bloat in both code size and dependency chain instability. On a slow connection, you might find yourself battling against your tool chain for half the day. In the case you actually hit a code problem with the underlying technologies, it's going to be hours if not days searching Github for the patched version of the module. If you actually are able to path the specific dependency, it will probably break something else.

I do have hope though. We are starting to see a lot of really cool Babel / React components and projects. I think with a bit more time, we'll get stability in the eco-system as there are less deltas to the underlaying code dependencies and the browser vendors catch up with ES7 features.