Javascript has warts, React has warts, Svelte has warts, Python has warts... It's easy to shoot yourself in the foot in any tech - it's leaky abstractions all the way down after all.

useEffect usage needs to die, yes. I don't think it's a case against React, given its age.

Otherwise, using React is straightforward. I started coding in it without reading any docs. As someone who used Dojo, prototype, ext.js, jQuery (+UI), Backbone.js, knockout (still has a special place), Mithril, the classic angular, vue (2), svelte, Marko and even Solid (I'm not totally sold on signals), React is the most straightforward by a mile.

Is it the most performant? Hell no. Is it the one with the least gotchas/warts? Nope. Concise? A giant no. Batteries included? It depends on what you're looking for...

But I can just be productive with it, and it makes sense.

A child who hasn't tasted other mom's food always say, my mom is the best cook in the world.

You saying you can be productive in react is just ironic. I just read it as, I can be employable using React.