VanJS deserves a mention here! https://vanjs.org/

Another interesting thing is that other JSX libraries like Solid.JS also return DOM nodes, and I love that this idea is gaining traction

The closer we get to the platform we're using, the better. Being removed by layers of abstractions CAN be useful, but in practice, I haven't found a use for abstracting away the platform. (yet.)

Maybe huge projects like Facebook benefit from this tho (which I haven't worked on)