[rimliu]

I have a harsher take, 95% where react is used it is used without the need.

[000ooo000]

The minimum technology required to solve a problem isn't always the same technology that a team has experience with, has existing projects/code in, can readily hire for, etc. Nor is it necessarily the same technology capable of solving future problems. Besides, some people just like the mental model of some tools and enjoy working in that way. The idea that we have to pick the minimum tooling every single time usually seems like flawed thinking based on that out-of-context Tim Berners-Lee quote.

[tmountain]

Prior to React, most developers just invented a strategy for structuring code on the client side. What’s your preferred alternative?

[Varriount]

React isn't a way of structuring code though. It's a whole (huge) framework dedicating to making web apps/pages. And most of the time it seems to be used to replicate functionality that the browser can already natively do (for example, navigating to another page).

You want a good example of how a non-react website and its code might be structured, look at GitHub. At least from a user perspective, I've never had a problem using the back button or ctrl-clicking links while navigating GitHub - which is not something I can say of most other React and heavy-js websites.