Honestly I wouldn't hire a web designer that can't code a little Javascript. It's been a while since knowing only HTML as a web designer has been acceptable.
To answer your question though: they're probably about the same level of difficulty, and I don't think it's a great argument for vanilla/React/Angular because a person who doesn't understand code trying to modify stuff that is controlled by code is going to break something regardless of what JS framework you're using.
I prefer JSX because it's not pulling wool over your eyes - you're building a JS app, not an HTML app - so let's stop pretending. The ESX syntax is just a nice way of forming a hierarchy of class instances. The beauty of React is that you could come up with your own syntax for doing that and use it just the same, because React is just Javascript.
> I prefer JSX because it's not pulling wool over your eyes - you're building a JS app, not an HTML app - so let's stop pretending.
Yeah, that's what it really boils down to. Many of the principles we apply are holdovers from when we used HTML and CSS for what it was originally intended: pages with content.
The way I see it, HTML and CSS were not meant for any of these apps. But if we are going to 'abuse' these technologies, we might as well chuck out the rulebook and optimize for what apps need to do.
That said, please don't do this if what you're making is 'pages with content'!
To answer your question though: they're probably about the same level of difficulty, and I don't think it's a great argument for vanilla/React/Angular because a person who doesn't understand code trying to modify stuff that is controlled by code is going to break something regardless of what JS framework you're using.
I prefer JSX because it's not pulling wool over your eyes - you're building a JS app, not an HTML app - so let's stop pretending. The ESX syntax is just a nice way of forming a hierarchy of class instances. The beauty of React is that you could come up with your own syntax for doing that and use it just the same, because React is just Javascript.