No... React is a fundamentally new way of working with the DOM, normalizes many cross browser pain points, and allows one to write their UI declaratively such that total control is retained and state mutations are predictable.

No other major view libraries had successfully done that before React was released. I've used angular and ember as well - their view layers suck.

What does react do for cross-browser pain points? I've not heard that claim before.

It ensures that any browser that isn't from google, apple, mozilla, or microsoft in the last year will simply not work, avoiding them significant support burdens!

Sorry -- have we done something to offend you?

Normalizes events, etc.

So many PR words without any reference to actual monetary business value.

Only to someone who isn't actually a developer.

It means my team can write a UI once, test it once, and know with a high degree of certainty that it will work and continue to do so.

A developer who isn't responsible for justifying project budgets you mean.

Virtual DOM is "just because"? Huh, guess I imagined those performance benefits.

Usually all these posts "X rewritten in Y" smell of CV building, without business value analysis done a priori.