Hard agree. I've used xml directives before, all the way back to Macromedia Flex (which I believe borrowed form something in the Java space, which probably borrowed from something else).

I'll likely NEVER use anything that doesn't let me run JSX.

My personal preference is for complexity at the start of the render pipeline (e.g. in state) or at the end (e.g, in JSX).

So I personally dislike complex hooks composition, but I can live with it. (My) teams seem to like it. I'd rather have boilerplate of redux, or redux sagas - or a S.O.L.I.D framework + scaffolding tools, and turn the composition of logic part of my brain off.

But the context switch to maintaining scaffolding tools is perhaps a bit of a jump.

As an aside: I'm shocked to see Yeoman largely diminished in activity, and Hygen (https://github.com/jondot/hygen) not getting anywhere near enough love as it deserves etc.

Perhaps there is some, first-class macro or meta programming or combination of the two that is missing. Or maybe its hard to invest in tools you can't necessarily take from job to job - as scaffolding tools are capturing opinion.

When I first saw JSX, I immediately thought I'd hate it. Then I jumped boat to React after years with AngularJs/Angular 2+ after hooks and functional components came in and to this day I still enjoy writing React. And I love JSx.