Maybe because it's an older and therefore feature-complete/mature project, or maybe because it's not being actively developed anymore (I really don't know), but jQuery's API has hardly changed in the past few years.
For this reason, jQuery-based projects from 3-4 years ago still work completely fine (including jQuery plugins), and I would imagine will keep working for years to come.
React is continuously evolving, and 1 year is enough to make React code and/or code in plugins used in a React project obsolete. Because of this, React projects break more easily if one doesn't or can't keep upgrading the code (for instance, because it was a client you don't work with anymore).
This is not good or bad, or anyone's fault, it's just how it is.
Like I said in previous comments, I would never go back to writing PHP or jQuery apps, but this is definitely an issue--either intrinsic of using an evolving technology like React, or caused by relying on too many plugins from authors that don't have the resources to keep supporting legacy APIs or upgrade their plugins to using the new ones.
For this reason, jQuery-based projects from 3-4 years ago still work completely fine (including jQuery plugins), and I would imagine will keep working for years to come.
React is continuously evolving, and 1 year is enough to make React code and/or code in plugins used in a React project obsolete. Because of this, React projects break more easily if one doesn't or can't keep upgrading the code (for instance, because it was a client you don't work with anymore).
This is not good or bad, or anyone's fault, it's just how it is.
Like I said in previous comments, I would never go back to writing PHP or jQuery apps, but this is definitely an issue--either intrinsic of using an evolving technology like React, or caused by relying on too many plugins from authors that don't have the resources to keep supporting legacy APIs or upgrade their plugins to using the new ones.