It seems you're missing the point. React and Mithril both employ virtual DOM, both use components and both allow higher abstractions that provide ways to manage complexities that arise in front-end development. Jquery and HTML don't do that.

I tried both Mithril and React and found Mithril to be simpler than React as it 'gets out of the way'.

I invite you to read this for more detailed comparison :

https://mithril.js.org/framework-comparison.html#react