> I still don't get why React Native is so exaggeratedly popular when re-writing code in huge codebases just because it's similar to the React you use in the desktop.

It isn’t popular. It’s talked about way more than it is actually used. 5.3% of mobile applications use React Native. 4.4% of mobile applications released in 2022 use React Native.

https://appfigures.com/resources/insights/20220729?f=3