They wouldn't, they would just use Lucee's script syntax instead which is very similar to JavaScript.

That’s how I feel about JSX, but it seems pretty well accepted these days. Spurious end tags were once regarded with more horror.

The general best practice is script-based syntax in your controllers and models, and tag-based in your views. You choose what makes the most sense and is easiest, which feels cleaner than many templating approaches where you're shoving syntax into expression tags.

It has its uses. It's a good fit for the actual templating part where it feels pretty natural mixed in with html.