[ketzo]

The answer -- as it is with every version of "why is this JS so complicated?" -- is that frontend web dev:

- is the default way that most humans interact with computers

- is an extraordinarily broad problem space and solution space

- is something that basically every modern software company needs to do in some capacity, and with even a few developers, abstractions become desirable

I'm not saying there wasn't a better way for React to adopt FP principles. I certainly have my own gripes.

But to start a conversation with "why does the most widely adopted framework for the most broadly-used software interface in history have some rough edges?" seems, to me, to be sort of begging the question.