That’s because react is a library, and not a framework. React doesn’t have opinions, that’s why you can find 300 state management libraries and 200 routers which do the same thing, just in different ways.

> That’s because react is a library, and not a framework.

React should be considered a framework.

React absolutely imposes a data model (unidirectional workflow) to the developer thus a certain code structure. The fact that it is light weight compared to Angular doesn't change the fact that React is a front end framework. React usage completely replaces the traditional way to interact with the DOM and manage DOM events, thus abstracting it.

> React doesn’t have opinions,

React becomes very hard to use if your data model isn't organized to suit React architecture.

It doesn't have opinions about everything (like AJAX or SPA routing) but it absolutely has an opinion about how you data objects should be structured.

Quote from reactjs.org: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Literally on the start page

Indeed, it's unfortunate that React bills itself, in its front-page copy, as a library and not a framework, out of a desire to emphasize its portability and being "lightweight"; but the day-to-day of building a React app is more that of working in a framework than calling library functions.