[Sammi]

That does sound like React is doing a lot of work to work around some issue. As OP said: "This is an example of React doing too much."

[acdlite]

I agree the React implementation is very complex, but in a way that's by design: we add features to React when it allows us to move complexity out of our product code and into a framework.

Like, yes, implementing batching in React was complicated, but in exchange the developer doesn't have to think about it anymore. It just works!