I had the opposite impression when looking at the React docs. JSX was intimidating and getting the quick examples to work resulted in several errors. JSX is of course optional, but the way that Angular just worked, without any non sense of installing anything, is what really drew me into the framework.
Thing is with React though, is that whilst it's initially a bit weird, once you get the hang of component lifecycle, there's very little conceptually left to learn, whereas with angular it just keeps getting more complicated.
JSX is simple, it is just simplified HTML. I think you may want to give it another try, sharpen your skills with it. It is not difficult to work with if you try.
And on installing things, it is basically what any developer does these days. We install tools for almost anything. Just think of the JSX tools as another tool in your belt to help with the translation. The paradigm shift opens up your palette to new technologies. For instance, you can go from using just JSX to using ES6 with JSX (babeljs) as well, with no added cost, all because you already have your build process set up.
I will say though that when it comes to abstracting elements, this behavior seems to be implicit across the board (angular directive templates require the same, though they include a somewhat-informative error state).
As someone who has only begun to feel out React/JSX after developing some large, semi-complex enterprise UI's in Angular (with the respective back-end, usually an abstracted REST API) I'm finding the React model to be a lot more intuitive and scalable.
Angular is fantastic until you run up against problems with complex tasks that either must run outside of the digest loop or require manual control of painting/rendering to compensate for the abysmal binding performance.
I agree - I find React has a higher initial overhead than Angular. Frontend web development is complex, so in the long run, the complexities will still show if you make a misstep.
That said, I'm happy with my time so far with React. I haven't gone into nitty gritty engineering with it yet due to not having the time to start really coding on my project with it, but it has been fairly simple relatively speaking.
I'm excited for Angular 2 though - the amount of planning going into it is excellent, and I believe it will also turn heads with its simplicity & performance.
Frontend web development is seeing some exciting changes that should ultimately make our development ecosystem much better to work with.
Intimidating was probably a poor choice of words. I guess odd would be better? Idk. It was just a deterrent for me. I can get over the syntax but the installation errors coupled with it being weird was just enough to make me drop the tutorial I was working on.
I do hope to start working with React again. It took me a few times to really get into angular so I'm sure once a guide comes out that really gets the details right I'll be fine. Something like this[1] for React would be amazing.
