Lit-Element puts lipstick on the low level pig, but React excels in many ways beyond it. Consistency between props (vs attributes), can render server side, awesome side effect system that makes it world class at hmr.

I think WebComponents have left a horrible taste in the mouth because they came well after React and others existed, didn’t take any inspiration or provide any abstractions that would help, did basically everything worse and seemingly without any discussion with real world devs, and then were hyped and pushed on everyone for years while they basically lacked all necessary features. Now, years later they have evolved and added libraries on top to smooth over all the weirdness, and if you squint they look similar, but the web would have been a better place if they had just provided some VDOM abstractions, style containment in a simple way, and so on rather than master-planned a High Modernist dystopia and then slowly painted over it until it resembled something like the organic cities that already existed.