I started using RN when I had 0 web skills and didn't know JS. Everything from making a simple button to hooking up the model was easier to me in RN from day 1 than the native iOS way that I'd been using for years.
As someone that unfortunately has to deal with React ecosystem, and knows reasonably well native programming across Apple, Google and Microsoft ecosystems, I have some hard time believing that, but might be a knowledge issue.