> ... hoops people in the React ecosystem go through just to send a request boggles the mind

React Hooks (currently in alpha for the next release of React) finally clean up that component lifecycle complexity I think you're referring to. Nader Dabit has a great post [0] on how to use React Hooks with GraphQL.

[0]https://medium.com/open-graphql/react-hooks-for-graphql-3fa8...