I really don’t understand how React has a high learning curve. I comprehend that one is effectively abstracting HTML when using JSX, but for small components and single-page applications, I personally found that it made sense relatively quickly; it simply manages the DOM and its state, which can be complimented by implementing a few methods. I think some of these learning curve arguments actually translate to developers using a technology because it’s a buzzword, rather than choosing a pragmatic solution for a use case, which can result in unnecessary complexity.

I do agree that the tooling ecosystem surrounding JavaScript development is massive and diverse, thus it can be overwhelming to determine what to use. Most of the time I just write Bash scripts to run tasks. I only compile with Babel when developing a React project or something that will benefit from ES6 and 7. Otherwise, I’ll simply use vanilla JavaScript with either Browserify or Crockford-style namespacing; the latter has been around for years, by the way: http://yuiblog.com/blog/2006/06/01/global-domination/

Additionally, developers should be able to determine scalable project architectures. Generators are handy for getting up and running quickly, but it would concern me if one felt out of one’s depth when doing it from scratch.