Can you explain what you mean by "perf optimization is a nightmare with Redux" ? Generally, Redux helps improve performance in a React app, especially as you connect more components.
Let's say you have a component deep in the hierarchy that needs to update based on a small but frequent change in a large object (thousands of keys). With Redux, you have to figure out how to diff the old and new copies of that object to figure out what changed. With MobX, you just observe the value of the exact key you're interested in.
That's just one example, but I generally spent a ton of time writing complex shouldComponentUpdate functions and therefore making lots of mistakes with Redux. I've found MobX much more suited to building complex UIs with deep hierarchies and tens to hundreds of total elements on the screen at once, where updating only exactly when necessary is critical.
I'd agree that MobX generally gives you good performance out of the box, but I'd definitely disagree that Redux's performance situation is a "nightmare".
One of the keys to good Redux performance is to connect more components, and have each component only extract a small piece of the state [0]. Using memoized selector functions also helps in most situations [1].
FWIW, there was a really good discussion on the relative strengths and weaknesses of Redux and MobX in regards to performance a while back [2].
I really like that mobx + vuex have their version of "memoized selectors" (computed getters) straight out of the box, fully integrated. They're so insanely useful.
That's just one example, but I generally spent a ton of time writing complex shouldComponentUpdate functions and therefore making lots of mistakes with Redux. I've found MobX much more suited to building complex UIs with deep hierarchies and tens to hundreds of total elements on the screen at once, where updating only exactly when necessary is critical.
I use MobX for my game Falcross, which I wrote about in the State of React Native 2018 thread from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17316877
I initially used Redux, and I found it actually technically impossible to get the game to perform well using Redux. I tried everything.