[acjohnson55]

For the most part, the changes really shouldn't affect typical users. The biggest change in React from a dev perspective was function components, maybe 2 years ago. If you keep your state outside of React, it's dead simple to use.

I think it's a great library and has only really gotten simpler and better. But, to each their own.

[hardwaresofton]

I agree that it's getting simpler and better -- tons of dedicated developers are making that happen. I wasn't trying to say that the rewrite shouldn't have happened or something, I just feel like there's a lot of zealotry festering, so many companies are picking React just to attract developers (anecdotal evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u80GTmVtdG4&t=2898s).

My problem is that it was being marketed (heavily) as simple and amazing at the beginning when it simply wasn't. From what I remember, the FB team was explicit about it not being for beginners, but the amount of marketing and trumpeting made that basically impossible, and now bootcamps are teaching it to beginners.

I just am super tired of having to talk people out of using it on their first project after learning and using HTML+CSS for the first time. I always sound like the insane person, saying "react is complicated" when all the marketing and blogs and everything else is saying "react is simple".

[sibeliuss]

const Name = (props) => <div>{props.name}</div>

const Age = (props) => <div>{props.age}</div>

const App = () => <div><Name name={'Zed'}/><Age age={20} /></div>

Is about as simple as it gets. This sort of composability can go _very_ far without needing any of the other API methods.

[hardwaresofton]

I looked up HOCs not long after writing the comment, and I agree -- this is much better than the mixin approach that used to be the way (though if I remember correctly, mixins were considered 'temporary' at the time).

This isn't a benefit of react though -- this is just react incorporating a well known functional paradigm, which I don't mind.

IMO If react was simple, this would have been the way to do it from the start -- no mixins detour. This answer would have fallen out (as it now has), if they simply didn't offer a way to inherit functionality, in that manner. If a component is truly just a function from state to output, the obvious way to combine them IS higher order functions.