If you mainly choose technology based on the fact it doesn't take any effort to learn at all, you will soon hit a wall on what software you can use overall.
Emacs was very difficult for me when I first started learning it. It was much more difficult than using a simple text editor (and this was with 10 years of programming experience)! Yet I persevered and you know what? After giving it some time and learning it properly I found myself vastly more productive with the tool.
Some things don't lend themselves well to immediate gratification. If the OP provided even a hint as to why React was more difficult for him I'm guessing it's not something with React but rather that he was using two completely different state management solutions.
I'm a big vi and sublime text user but always open for better tooling.
btw - I actually agree with you on the learning thing but React just sucks. I'm able to get shit done with Vue and at the end of the week I haven't wasted three afternoons learning jsx/webpack/deployment/relearning-a-new-way-of-doing-css blah blah. I say this with some hesitation but CSS is a solved problem in my opinion with Sass.