NextJS has been pushed aggressively by many people and often recommended as a kind of default for React applications. Which I consider a bad idea, in a large part because NextJS contains a lot of complexity that most applications don't need.

the React documentation is infamously responsible of recommending Next as a "default". After a lot of backlash it got somewhat toned down, but it's still the first thing they suggest[1] for creating a new app

[1] https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app