The alternative to React is not jQuery spaghetti or full page reloads. You have solutions that cost a third or less of the effort of doing an SPA (and not as little as throwing in some jQuery) such as Unpoly, or Hotwire.
I'm only bringing up jQuery because the transition from homegrown jQuery madness to React is still a common upgrade path (even more so five years ago). I'm not claiming React is the optimal choice for anything. In many cases it is objectively the most pragmatic one, though. It has arguably the most momentum and mind share of any frontend technology ever. And it just isn't as horrible as the parent and other posts make it out to be.
