I like to criticize React as much as the next person, but this is an JS ecosystem problem around third-party libraries, not a React problem per se.

If you're using third-party NPM packages to do "Vanilla", you're will probably run into the same problem.

If you import React directly from a CDN, you won't.

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algolint 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Agreed, it's an ecosystem-wide challenge. But React's dominance effectively cemented the 'build step as default' paradigm. When an entire generation of developers learns to `npm install` before understanding the DOM, the penalty for third-party drift gets baked into the architecture early. Delivering raw ES modules over a CDN structurally forces a lighter dependency footprint and pushes complexity to the edges.

	▲	whstl 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, I agree. Build systems (especially Babel and Webpack) were the first big culprits in terms of dependency bloat, and it was very rare to see React without them.

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algolint 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

on the other hand, AI assisted coding may open avenue, when developers choose native over framework