This article claims Web Components could replace frontend frameworks. React is a component library often used in a frontend framework.
React wraps the DOM with a Virtual DOM that provides a declarative abstraction for stateless updates. That is, you can write a plain function - given data X, produce DOM state Y - and React works out all the DOM calls required to arrive at the desired DOM tree from the current actual DOM tree.
So, with React, a developer does not need to make granular element-by-element, attribute-by-attribute changes. Many developers have found that leaving this diff / patch work up to the computer is easier than working out all the DOM calls themselves. Even more so than the concept of components, this has enabled architectures that many developers find pleasing.
Now, you can call that stupid or delusional if you like, but at least understand what's being referenced here.