[johnfn]

> Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS

This is a non-answer. It only really is an admissible solution if you're just working by yourself. React solves real problems when building web applications. If you use vanilla HTML, CSS and JS, you're going to have to solve those same problems. How are you going to do it? How are you going to manage state? How are you going to synchronize your state with the DOM? How are you going to organize your components?

Teams that use vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS end up eventually building an internal, buggy, half-implemented, undocumented version of React.

[ramones13]

I didn’t say don’t use libraries at all. There’s a wide spectrum between rolling your own everything and putting a massive abstraction layer framework between you and the platform.