I tend to agree, but you don't have to move at the same speed as the framework. If you have a version that is working well for your needs, stick with it for a year. Then decide when and where to upgrade. You can let the dust settle on new features, let other people learn the harsh lessons and come up with best practices, and then you follow in their footsteps, stably upgrading your codebase to exactly the point that makes sense.

Or, if you prefer a business cliche, prefer leading edge over bleeding edge.

I agree with you, but I've also tried other frameworks and there isn't a single one that is all-around better than React.

Unless you're willing to migrate to other compile-to-js languages.

If you aren't interested in 3rd party components or React 16+ features... you could try Inferno or Preact as alternatives with JSX and a similar API.

Have you tried mithril.js?

es6 (with babel) is already effectively a compile-to-js language