[biscarch]

Having React on a static blog makes it easier to share component libraries that you've built up on other projects (perhaps SPAs) with said static blog.

It also allows the use of React's ecosystem, such as react-helmet[0], which makes it easier to change the meta tags and title on the page when rendering.

[0]: https://github.com/nfl/react-helmet

[spdustin]

...which can be done with YAML frontmatter on a markdown file in other static site generator, simply referencing the frontmatter in the layout partial that you have wrapping every page anyway.

[biscarch]

Right, except support for that has to be built into the static site generator you're using. In the React case, the user can choose how they want to do it without the SSG author caring at all. I will also say that in the case of frontmatter, react-helment is a far more powerful solution which allows defining at any point in the tree, not just a layout partial.

In addition, the React way allows you a full language to handle import/export for "templates" instead of relying on a hampered template language/partials implementation.

The key here isn't the specific instance of frontmatter, it's having the flexibility to use everything one might use to build a SPA to target static sites. This re-use of existing solutions and skills is important.