There are also frameworks like solidjs which have similar syntax to React but avoid the complexity of hooks with a simpler API and no hook rules. Classes are not the only solution

Lately I've been investigating Svelte. It looks really good, but I think I'm going to stick with React/Nextjs simply because of the ecosystem and switching cost.

Again, this isn't 'American Idol for frameworks'; I'm not picking React because I think it's the best, or even better. I'm picking React because of the habitat, and because that habitat is now, in a sense, my hometown.

Yeah of course, you always have to do what is best for your company/clients and React is always a great choice (can't beat the ecosystem)

It's the same reason why I non-ironically recommend Wordpress to a lot of people that have super limited budgets and want the moon.

I do enjoy trying all the different new approaches to UI development though, especially as I'm not a frontend developer so most of the time I write frontend code I'm building either internal tools or personal projects, so I get to experiment a lot.