An even simpler bit of sugar over the DOM that I embed whenever I need just a little bit of JS:

  function $E(t,p,c) {
      const el=document.createElement(t)
      Object.assign(el,p)
      el.append(...c)
      return el
  }

Usage:

    const button = $E('button', {onclick: () => alert('click!')}, [
        $E('img', {src: '/assets/icon-lightbulb.png'}, []),
        'Ding!',
    ])

(With thanks to 'goranmoomin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23590750)