[Izkata]

> I can't think of anything React brought in that earlier frameworks didn't already have in a form or another. Maybe hooks? Arguably the worst and least performant part of React.

The virtual DOM existed only in a library or two that you had to build around, before React made it into a useable framework. The whole "automatically figure out minimal DOM changes", especially things like reusing existing <input> elements so the user input doesn't vanish or the element lose focus, were pretty much brand-new when it came out.