Indeed, this is simpler in ClojureScript world where all state is kept in a single place. It's harder to do the same for JavaScript React components that may have local state, but as you see, it's perfectly possible.

Also, as far as I'm aware, ClojureScript hot reloading tools actually unmount the component. This may be OK because state is restored from one source, but it's not as nice-looking because DOM is thrown away on every update, and it flickers.