You've mentioned one of the exact reasons why I found Vue.js so much simpler. It's highly opinionated, which for 95% of the time, in my experience, is exactly what I want.

I found myself much much more open to JS library fatigue with React; the ecosystem is so vast that it's hard to figure out which particular store I need, or which routing library I want or what form library I need and so on. I've seen a number of people complain about this, especially new comers.

I find the opinionated nature of Vue.js so refreshing, especially for newcomers, which the OP is, hence why Vue.js is a much better option to begin with. And continue with, but that's a decision I guess the OP can make further down the road.

You don't need a route library. You don't need a form library.

What do you need a routing library for? Have a single controller component (usually the most outer shell app component) and sprinkle in further functionality (e.g. history pushState) as necessary. Don't build it out until you actually need it.

I've never needed a "form library" because forms are almost always interactive in some specific way. Using a form library is almost always guaranteed to just get in the way.

You don't need to have a global state management library either if you have a good grasp of your apps data structures and how they need to be passed into components.

I find with React I get the opposite of javascript fatigue: it's so easy to build anything you need once you understand react that you won't need to search for all those libraries and code snippets.

I guess we have completely different approaches to software development.

I really hate reinventing the wheel, especially when good quality production tested solutions are out there. React libraries, quality wise, I've found hit or miss.

I find Vuex a very nice global store and the tooling (chrome plugin etc..) is top-notch.

You won't be reinventing the wheel for things like global state management and javascript routers. I promise. These libraries are huge solutions to problems that may or may not be huge - and in most of the cases I've seen, YAGNI.

The concept of maintaining application state is nothing specific to SPA's. What is new is the idea that every application must have a global data store where all state is saved. This is a trend and not always necessarily a best practice.

This isn't a matter of reinventing the wheel, it's a matter of using an oversized solution for an undersized problem.

Your response is a bit disingenuous.

> no custom templating language

JSX may not be a templating language but you still need to consider it when comparing with other framework's languages

> less opinionated

The community is though, if you don't do things with redux, react-router, etc then you're considered odd. Any job you pick up with react is sure to use those.

> The community is though, if you don't do things with redux, react-router, etc then you're considered odd

A bit disingenuous there. In general people find Redux quite complicated and it everyone acknowledges it requires quite a bit of boilerplate when used in the default way. Quite a few like MobX, or using their own state management.

I've found the community to be very open to alternatives and helpful.

I've used neither of those libraries in any of the production React apps I've made.

Me neither, thank god.