In my experience even something you thought was a basic form will usually have some kind of UI state (e.g. one input that then enables/disables another input).
Yes, of course. And then you add one or two more lines of jQuery. And then another few lines to deal with the client-side and server-side state getting out of sync. And then...
Is putting in a couple of lines of JS that has no knowledge of the backend-managed good enough for small one-off pages? Maybe. But it's definitely not composable and abstractable, which was the original claim.
I assume we're still talking about links, forms, and data tables. If the forms are so complex that we need React to manage them then it may be worth trying to simplify them a bit first.
Or if the forms have to sync with the backend then there are other React-less options, for example:
Any input change triggers any/all other inputs to change.
Looks like they send the entire page each action, no React, yet the user experience is much better than the typical competitor site where they've overengineered the whole front end.
I clicked a couple of inputs and it's now stuck on a loading animation of a glass getting filled with golf balls (been running for about two minutes now). So you've pretty much proven my point.
As a third party to this conversation, I think it's completely hilarious that you try really hard to make a point that ends up proven wrong, and your answer, rather than actual introspection about your beliefs, is sarcasm and an overall rude response.
This stubbornly stupid mindset is why we have wars.
Edit: I checked the site myself and was able to reproduce the issue mentioned in GP. This is a terrible website.
If you only need links, forms, and data tables