React is a bad idea imo. I see small teams do way better with plain old HTML augmented with minimal Javascript. React itself is huge to download and slower to execute. I can't believe we're still stuck in React world.
The way React Native works is an example of how good the original React concept still is. It has nothing to do with HTML, it's made of cross-platform view components. It has similar ergonomics as the web version, like one-way data flow, immediate-mode rendering, view as function of state.
It's true that React has passed its peak usefulness (relative to the problems it brings), in a long tail of decline for the next decade. Newer better view libraries are being created and adopted by the community. Some of them will eventually overtake React as the next standard tool. But they all learned from React's lessons, because it really did push forward the evolution of web development.
It seems like you didn't notice this was about React Native, the cross platform mobile app framework.
So "just write plain html" isn't a valid alternative unless you want to write a Progressive Web App instead. Which means you:
- Forego the App Store and need to ask users to bookmark your website
- Loose ease of access to device features (cameras, sensors, push notifications)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VbMt_4STWIo
As the other commenter said, it may not be as "native" as you'd like.
I remember using the Hey app and being amazed at how well it worked (and this wasn't Hotwire Native at the time, I think) and I'm kind of sensitive to mobile apps not working as expected.
I don't know anything about React Native aside from my dislike for the complexity of React and how it perverts web operability, not to mention it is epically overkill for most use cases.