Anyway, is there really such a widespread pattern of employers requiring React experience when plain-vanilla HTML/JS/CSS is all that's needed on the job?
The weight of the post rests on that assumption, but where's the evidence for it?
But I agree with everything you’ve said in both your comments. I think that a lot of companies are asking for React because a lot of them are building web apps or “mildly interactive” websites, where (I agree with you) React is also fit for purpose.
I feel the same. Coming from MooTools, Prototype, Dojo I have found that modern frameworks like Vue and Svelte make my life so much easier.
The whole JavaScript ecosystem with Node.js and npm has helped such ideas/implementations/frameworks bloom and I'm grateful for that.
That's the real substance of the post right there. It's a valid expression of the author's experience. But it's irrelevant to people who know they need React and know how to use it appropriately.
I've been building websites since 1996, using HTML, JavaScript and CSS right from those early days.
I always found it frustrating for building rich web applications, or even "plain" websites with any significant amount of interactive functionality, and I made several attempts at building frameworks of my own to make it faster and simpler.
jQuery, Prototype, ExtJS/Sencha, Backbone.js and Angular all seemed promising, but none took enough of the pain away.
Since I started using React about 4 years ago, I've found building rich web applications a joyful experience for the first time in my career.
To be clear, I'm not using it for tasks where plain HTML/JS/CSS are adequate for the job. When I build basic info webpages, I just use plain HTML/JS/CSS, with maybe a bit of jQuery. It's fine.
But a lot of my work is on sites/applications where many data entities need to be updated in many different places across a view or the whole app frequently and quickly (notably, apps that display live weather/environment/crop data for farmers and researchers), and React with Redux makes it very simple to do, with the app still being lightweight and fast to load and very responsive to user interaction.
And it's a nice bonus that I can re-use a lot of the code for native-ish mobile apps using React Native.
But I only knew that React was useful for me, and learned how to use it, because I had a pre-existing need and many years of frustration using frameworks/libraries that didn't tick the boxes.
If the author isn't building products that would actually benefit from the introduction of React, then it's unsurprising that they don't see the benefit or find it easy to learn.