I completely agree. We are using Angular 1.x at my day job and my team and I are feeling the pain. Manual DOM manipulation compared to React's virtual DOM feels like what it must have used to feel like comparing jQuery to Angular 1.

Perhaps frameworks don't rust in the sense that they deteriorate in terms of capabilities over time. But that doesn't mean that they don't become obsolete. Especially when you're building a product and trying to stay competitive, all the while all the the innovation surrounding a framework has packed up and left for a nicer camp.