I would assume that lot of people just find the JSX equivalent a lot more readable and familiar (a matter of opinion, of course.)

  <div>
    <p>this is easy</p>
    {list.map((l) => <li>{l}</li>)}
  </div>

> you automatically get loops, variable interpolation etc without having to invent a compiler and new syntax

To be fair to JSX, you use regular loops, interpolation, etc without any different syntax (`{}` accepts a vanilla JS expression), you just obviously need the compiler step to de-sugar the element tags to `createElement` calls.