While it initially took some time to wrap my head around JSX (especially with a lot of JS mixed into it), after that I really started to enjoy JSX for its simplicity. The Fragment syntax adds some additional magic to JSX (which is rarely a good thing), and will also very likely break all the syntax highlighting out there again when used.
In: <></>
Out: <React.Fragment></React.Fragment>
WITCHCRAFT!! SORCERY!!
Teasing aside, I don't get what's magical about this. It's a straightforward transform. You can call that "magic," I'll call it "syntax."
Taking your example when putting it in front of someone seeing it for the first time:
In: <></>
Out (Newcomer): WTF does that mean? Did someone forget to put something in those tags?
I understand your point, but in practice people love tiny affordances like this, especially when they are needed as often as fragments are.
This is a balance, but it's important to consider the needs of power users too. Beginners don't stay beginners forever. We've thought about this for a few months, and decided that adding syntax would be better. I understand some people will always disagree though, and that's fine :-)
But for a newcomer to JSX it looks odd.
I'm probably just missing the reason for the syntax, we're already compiling - why can't fragments be added automatically as required?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15808311
If you have a specific proposal for how it should work, I'm happy to look at it and try to poke holes in it.
Can't imagine putting forward a proposal that wouldn't in essence be what you're doing, i.e. wrapping in JSX delimiters. Because attempting anything fancier than that would probably have edge cases for days, plenty of material for you to poke holes in.