This is actually a pretty decent article, in part because it signals its audience properly: (semi-?)experienced React developers who haven't dealt with optimization yet.
Anyone else sick of the incredibly lazy "shill"-type accusations being thrown around lately? Just because a post is heavily upvoted or downvoted does not mean the team behind the post is brigading or manipulating it. Let's loosen those tinfoil hats just a bit.
I have been using FB front-end projects for several years, and today I see them as _the_ gold standard for a supportive, mature, well-governed, and consistent FoSS ecosystem. I struggle to recall any snarkiness, cynicism, or even rudeness. I'm sure it happens, but I closely monitor several of their projects and the behavior is mostly exemplary even without considering the size of the user-base.
Besides near-exemplary FoSS behavior, FB engineers must solve problems well beyond what most industry will ever attempt, and then present some of their solutions on a silver platter for the rest of us. Of course, it's not perfect, and sometimes confusing, and sometimes over-engineering, but I would personally pay $xx,000 per year to use any library of the same standard as they give out for free.
So when I see a callous comment that takes nothing to write and could cause someone to feel degraded about their vast contributions, I downvote. It's not about safe places, it's about professional respect and courtesy.
Edit: sorry guys, didn't knew you were all on HN :(